vsHaiConfusable pair

Quick tell: is a verb, Hai is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#88
“há” frequency rank
#31,805
“Hai” frequency rank
31893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hai
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo haver tubarão

Letter map: há vs Hai

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

2 ch
há
3 ch
Hai

Grammar separator: há vs Hai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is averb and Haianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #88, classified as averb. Hai is at rank #31,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced /haɪ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 31893, this pair ranks #36,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of há vs Hai

Shared letters: h. Private to "há": á. Private to "Hai": ai.

"há" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Hai" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "há" for "Hai" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "há" is a verb and "Hai" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "há" vs "Hai" - which ranks higher?
"há" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #88 in our Portuguese list, against #31,805 for "Hai". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "há" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "há" and "Hai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hai vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #36,062 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