fossevsfostesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fosse” and “fostes” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#348
“fosse” frequency rank
#42,935
“fostes” frequency rank
43283
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fosse fostes
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do conjuntivo do verbo ser segunda pessoa do plural do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser

Where the eye mixes fosse and fostes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fosse
6 ch
fostes

Look-alike desk: fosse vs fostes

A purely visual mix-up. fosse (/ˈfo.si/) and fostes (/ˈfos.ʧis/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fosse is recorded at frequency rank #348, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.si/. fostes is at rank #42,935, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfos.ʧis/.

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 43283, this pair ranks #22,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fosse vs fostes

Shared letters: efos. Private to "fosse": -. Private to "fostes": t.

"fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fostes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fosseffosse · fose · foses · fsose · ofsse
  • fostesffostes · fosets · fosstes · fostess · fostse · fosttes · fotses · fsotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fosse" for "fostes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfo.si/ versus /ˈfos.ʧis/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fosse" or "fostes"?
"fosse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #348 in our Portuguese list, against #42,935 for "fostes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fosse" and "fostes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fostes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fosse" and "fostes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fosses vs fostes". 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 #22,372 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