hãovshisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hão is a verb, his is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hão” is a verb and “his” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,033
“hão” frequency rank
#8,209
“his” frequency rank
32242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hão his
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo haver pronome do caso possessivo da terceira pessoa masculina do singular, dele.

Letter map: hão vs his

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

3 ch
hão
3 ch
his

Role in the sentence - hão and his

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hão is averb and hisapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32242, 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]. his is at rank #8,209, tagged as apron.

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 32242, this pair ranks #35,618 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hão vs his

Shared letters: h. Private to "hão": . Private to "his": is.

"hão" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hão" and "his" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hão" is a verb and "his" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "hão" or "his" show up more?
"his" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,209 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.

After this comparison

You've compared "hão" and "his". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,618 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hão" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hão vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #35,618 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