fortvsfosteTell them apart

Quick tell: fort is a noun, foste is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fort” is a noun and “foste” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,467
“fort” frequency rank
#11,469
“foste” frequency rank
22936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fort foste
Definition forte segunda pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser

Letter map: fort vs foste

Shared letters muted; letters that set fort and foste apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. fort runs 4 letters (CVCC) against foste's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fort
5 ch
foste

Grammar separator: fort vs foste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fort is anoun and fosteaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fort is recorded at frequency rank #11,467, classified as anoun. foste is at rank #11,469, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfos.ʧi/.

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 22936, this pair ranks #46,991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fort vs foste

Shared letters: fot. Private to "fort": r. Private to "foste": es.

"fort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "foste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fort ← ffort · forrt · fortt · fotr · frot · ofrt
  • foste ← ffoste · foset · fosste · fostte · fotse · fsote · ofste

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fort" for "foste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fort" is a noun and "foste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fort" or "foste"?
"fort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,467 in our Portuguese list, against #11,469 for "foste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "fort" vs "foste" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fort" and "foste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fern vs fort". 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 #46,991 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