hãovshaveTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,033
“hão” frequency rank
#7,419
“have” frequency rank
31452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hão have
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo haver ter, possuir

Letter map: hão vs have

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

3 ch
hão
4 ch
have

Pair insight - hão / have

hão and have are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hão is recorded at frequency rank #24,033, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɐ̃w̃/ [ˈɐ̃ʊ̯̃]. have is at rank #7,419, tagged as averb.

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 31452, this pair ranks #36,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hão vs have

Shared letters: h. Private to "hão": . Private to "have": aev.

"hão" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "have" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haveahve · haev · havve · hhave · hvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hão" and "have" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "hão" or "have"?
"have" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,419 in our Portuguese list, against #24,033 for "hão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "hão" vs "have" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "have" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hão" and "have" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hão 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 #36,622 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