hábilvshaniWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hábil is a adjective, hani is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hábil” is an adjective and “hani” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,088
“hábil” frequency rank
#35,622
“hani” frequency rank
51710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hábil hani
Definition que sabe executar, que faz bem galo, macho da galinha (Gallus gallus)

Where the eye mixes hábil and hani

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hábil runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against hani's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
hábil
4 ch
hani

Why the eye confuses hábil with hani

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hábil is /ˈa.biɫ/ while hani is /ˈhaː.nɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hábil is recorded at frequency rank #16,088, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.biɫ/. hani is at rank #35,622, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhaː.nɪ/.

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 51710, this pair ranks #13,383 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hábil vs hani

Shared letters: hi. Private to "hábil": blá. Private to "hani": an.

"hábil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hani" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hani ← ahni · hain · hanni · hhani · hnai

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hábil" and "hani" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hábil" is an adjective and "hani" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "hábil" or "hani" show up more?
"hábil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,088 in our Portuguese list, against #35,622 for "hani". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "hábil" and "hani" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hábil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hani" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,383 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hábil" and "hani" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hani vs hui". 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 #13,383 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