Which to use
“haber” is a verb and “hábil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,921
- “haber” frequency rank
- #16,088
- “hábil” frequency rank
- 64009
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | haber | hábil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (verbo auxiliar junto com o particípio para formar o pretérito perfeito) | que sabe executar, que faz bem |
Where the eye mixes haber and hábil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. haber and hábil follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: haber vs hábil
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: haber is /aˈβ̞eɾ/ while hábil is /ˈa.biɫ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
haber is recorded at frequency rank #47,921, classified as averb, pronounced /aˈβ̞eɾ/. hábil is at rank #16,088, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.biɫ/.
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 64009, this pair ranks #5,951 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of haber vs hábil
Shared letters: bh. Private to "haber": aer. Private to "hábil": ilá.
"haber" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hábil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- haber ← ahber · habber · haberr · habre · haebr · hbaer · hhaber
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "haber" and "hábil" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "haber" or "hábil" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "haber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hábil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,951 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "haber" and "hábil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haber vs Hebe". 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 #5,951 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.