fragavsFrauWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,771
“fraga” frequency rank
#32,994
“Frau” frequency rank
49765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fraga Frau
Definition morango. mulher

Where the eye mixes fraga and Frau

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fraga runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against Frau's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fraga
4 ch
Frau

Visual trap between fraga and Frau

A purely visual mix-up. fraga (/ˈfɾago/.) and Frau (/fraʊ̯/) 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 49765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fraga is recorded at frequency rank #16,771, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾago/.. Frau is at rank #32,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fraʊ̯/.

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 49765, this pair ranks #15,215 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fraga vs Frau

Shared letters: afr. Private to "fraga": g. Private to "Frau": u.

"fraga" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Frau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fraga ← farga · ffraga · fraag · fragga · frgaa · frraga · rfaga
  • Frau ← faru · ffrau · frrau · frua · rfau

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fraga" for "Frau" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɾago/. versus /fraʊ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fraga" vs "Frau" - which ranks higher?
"fraga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,771 in our Portuguese list, against #32,994 for "Frau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fraga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Frau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,215 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fraga" and "Frau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foras vs Frau". 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 #15,215 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