golvsguyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,746
“gol” frequency rank
#7,165
“guy” frequency rank
8911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gol guy
Definition pontuação em certos tipos de jogos como o futebol e andebol cara

Where the eye mixes gol and guy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
gol
3 ch
guy

Look-alike desk: gol vs guy

A purely visual mix-up. gol (/ˈgow/) and guy (/gaɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gol is recorded at frequency rank #1,746, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow/. guy is at rank #7,165, tagged as anoun, pronounced /gaɪ/.

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 8911, this pair ranks #64,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gol vs guy

Shared letters: g. Private to "gol": lo. Private to "guy": uy.

"gol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "guy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gol" for "guy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈgow/ versus /gaɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gol" vs "guy" - which ranks higher?
"gol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,746 in our Portuguese list, against #7,165 for "guy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gol" and "guy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grua vs guy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,697 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