foresvsforteTell them apart

Quick tell: fores is a verb, forte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fores” is a verb and “forte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,651
“fores” frequency rank
#463
“forte” frequency rank
25114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fores forte
Definition segunda pessoa do singular do futuro do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo ir; que tem força

Where the eye mixes fores and forte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fores (CVCVC) and forte (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
fores
5 ch
forte

Visual trap between fores and forte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fores is /ˈfo.ɾes/ while forte is [ˈfɔɾt͡ʃɪ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fores is recorded at frequency rank #24,651, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.ɾes/. forte is at rank #463, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɔɾt͡ʃɪ].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 25114, this pair ranks #44,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fores vs forte

Shared letters: efor. Private to "fores": s. Private to "forte": t.

"fores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "forte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fores ← ffores · foers · foress · forres · forse · froes · ofres
  • forte ← fforte · foret · forrte · fortte · fotre · frote · ofrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fores" and "forte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fores" is a verb and "forte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fores" or "forte" show up more?
"forte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #463 in our Portuguese list, against #24,651 for "fores". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fores" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fores" and "forte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fores vs former". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #44,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list