Hai vs ham, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Hai” and “ham” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,805
“Hai” frequency rank: #19,746
“ham” frequency rank: 51551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Hai	ham
Definition	tubarão	pernil

Where the eye mixes Hai and ham

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

Hai

3 ch

ham

Visual trap between Hai and ham

A purely visual mix-up. Hai (/haɪ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and ham (/hæm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - i in “Hai” becomes m in “ham”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hai is recorded at frequency rank #31,805, classified as anoun, pronounced /haɪ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?). ham is at rank #19,746, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hæm/.

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 51551, this pair ranks #13,510 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Hai vs ham

Shared letters: ah. Private to "Hai": i. Private to "ham": m.

"Hai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hai" for "ham" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/haɪ̯/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /hæm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "Hai" or "ham"?

"ham" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,746 in our Portuguese list, against #31,805 for "Hai". 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 "Hai" and "ham" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "Hai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #13,510 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Hai" and "ham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hai vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,510 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.