holevshouveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hole is a noun, houve is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hole” is a noun and “houve” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,052
“hole” frequency rank
#672
“houve” frequency rank
26724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hole houve
Definition buraco primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo haver

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hole and houve apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
hole
5 ch
houve

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hole is anoun and houveaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hole is recorded at frequency rank #26,052, classified as anoun, pronounced /hoʊl/. houve is at rank #672, 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 26724, this pair ranks #42,369 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hole vs houve

Shared letters: eho. Private to "hole": l. Private to "houve": uv.

"hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "houve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holehhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle
  • houvehhouve · houev · houvve · hovue · huove · ohuve

Frequency comparison

hole#26,052
houve#672

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hole" and "houve" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hole" is a noun and "houve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hole" or "houve"?
"houve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #672 in our Portuguese list, against #26,052 for "hole". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering hole vs houve

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hole”; for a verb, it's “houve”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hole” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list