Which to use
“forget” is a verb and “former” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,336
- “forget” frequency rank
- #47,368
- “former” frequency rank
- 71704
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forget | former |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | esquecer | formador |
Letter map: forget vs former
Shared letters muted; letters that set forget and former apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - forget and former
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: forget is averb and formeranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71704, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forget is recorded at frequency rank #24,336, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfoːget/. former is at rank #47,368, tagged as anoun.
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 71704, this pair ranks #3,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of forget vs former
Shared letters: efor. Private to "forget": gt. Private to "former": m.
"forget" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "former" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "forget" and "former" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "forget" or "former" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "forget" and "former".
- Full dictionary entry for "forget" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "former" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forget" and "former" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "former vs formol". 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 #3,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.