fracovsfrangoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fraco is a adjective, frango is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fraco” is an adjective and “frango” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,401
“fraco” frequency rank
#3,990
“frango” frequency rank
7391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fraco frango
Definition sem força pinto já crescido que ainda não é galo, ou melhor, adolescente

Where the eye mixes fraco and frango

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

5 ch
fraco
6 ch
frango

Look-alike desk: fraco vs frango

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fraco is /ˈfɾa.ku/ while frango is /ˈfɾɐ̃.ɡu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fraco is recorded at frequency rank #3,401, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɾa.ku/. frango is at rank #3,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾɐ̃.ɡu/.

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 7391, this pair ranks #66,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fraco vs frango

Shared letters: afor. Private to "fraco": c. Private to "frango": gn.

"fraco" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "frango" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fracofarco · ffraco · fracco · fraoc · frcao · frraco · rfaco
  • frangofarngo · ffrango · fragno · franggo · franngo · franog · frnago · frrango

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fraco" and "frango" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fraco" is an adjective and "frango" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fraco" or "frango" show up more?
"fraco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,401 in our Portuguese list, against #3,990 for "frango". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fraco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frango" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fraco" and "frango" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fosco vs fraco". 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 #66,749 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