gulavsguyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,619
“gula” frequency rank
#7,165
“guy” frequency rank
42784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gula guy
Definition desejo excessivo de comer cara

Where the eye mixes gula and guy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gula
3 ch
guy

Why the eye confuses gula with guy

A purely visual mix-up. gula (/ˈɡu.lɐ/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gula is recorded at frequency rank #35,619, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡu.lɐ/. 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 42784, this pair ranks #22,940 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gula vs guy

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gula": al. Private to "guy": y.

"gula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "guy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gulaggula · glua · gual · gulla · ugla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gula" for "guy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡu.lɐ/ versus /gaɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gula" or "guy"?
"guy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,165 in our Portuguese list, against #35,619 for "gula". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gula" 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 #22,940 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gula" and "guy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grua vs gula". 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 #22,940 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