vshalfConfusable pair

Quick tell: is a verb, half is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#88
“há” frequency rank
#13,952
“half” frequency rank
14040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature half
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo haver meio

Letter map: há vs half

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

2 ch
há
4 ch
half

Grammar separator: há vs half

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is averb and halfanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #88, classified as averb. half is at rank #13,952, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɦɑlf/.

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 14040, this pair ranks #58,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of há vs half

Shared letters: h. Private to "há": á. Private to "half": afl.

"há" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "half" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • halfahlf · hafl · halff · hallf · hhalf · hlaf

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "há" and "half" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "há" is a verb and "half" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "há" vs "half" - which ranks higher?
"há" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #88 in our Portuguese list, against #13,952 for "half". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "há" vs "half" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "há" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "half" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "há" and "half" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "half vs hani". 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 #58,152 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