vsjoanWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: is a adverb, joan is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“já” is an adverb and “joan” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41
“já” frequency rank
#10,027
“joan” frequency rank
10068
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joan
Definition imediatamente

Where the eye mixes já and joan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
já
4 ch
joan

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: is /ˈʒa/ while joan is /dʒaun/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #41, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈʒa/. joan is at rank #10,027, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʒaun/.

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 10068, this pair ranks #63,154 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of já vs joan

Shared letters: j. Private to "já": á. Private to "joan": ano.

"já" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "joan" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joanjaon · jjoan · joann · jona · ojan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "já" and "joan" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "já" is an adverb and "joan" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "já" or "joan"?
"já" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41 in our Portuguese list, against #10,027 for "joan". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "já" and "joan". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "já" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "joan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,154 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "já" and "joan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "já vs jed". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list