hvsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: h is a symbol, is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“h” is a symbol and “há” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,433
“h” frequency rank
#88
“há” frequency rank
1521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature h
Definition símbolo de hora: terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo haver

Letter map: h vs há

Shared letters muted; letters that set h and apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch
h
2 ch
há

Part-of-speech tell for h / há

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: h is asymbol and averb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “h” sits inside “há”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

h is recorded at frequency rank #1,433, classified as asymbol. is at rank #88, tagged as averb.

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 1521, this pair ranks #74,030 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of h vs há

Shared letters: h. Private to "h": -. Private to "há": á.

"h" · 1 letters · shape C  ·  "há" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "h" and "há" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "h" is a symbol and "há" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "h" vs "há" - which ranks higher?
"há" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #88 in our Portuguese list, against #1,433 for "h". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "h" and "há".

  • Full dictionary entry for "h" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "há" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,030 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "h" and "há" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "h vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,030 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