Which to use
“ham” is a noun and “hão” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,746
- “ham” frequency rank
- #24,033
- “hão” frequency rank
- 43779
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ham | hão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pernil | terceira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo haver |
Where the eye mixes ham and hão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ham vs hão
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ham is /hæm/ while hão is /ˈɐ̃w̃/ [ˈɐ̃ʊ̯̃]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ham is recorded at frequency rank #19,746, classified as anoun, pronounced /hæm/. hão is at rank #24,033, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɐ̃w̃/ [ˈɐ̃ʊ̯̃].
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 43779, this pair ranks #21,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ham vs hão
Shared letters: h. Private to "ham": am. Private to "hão": oã.
"ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hão" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ham" and "hão" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ham" or "hão" 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 "ham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ham" and "hão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ham vs hamza". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #21,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.