joanvsjogoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,027
“joan” frequency rank
#233
“jogo” frequency rank
10260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature joan jogo
Definition pó atividade recreativa que segue certas regras

Where the eye mixes joan and jogo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. joan (CVVC) and jogo (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
joan
4 ch
jogo

Look-alike desk: joan vs jogo

A purely visual mix-up. joan (/dʒaun/) and jogo (/ˈʒo.ɡu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

joan is recorded at frequency rank #10,027, classified as anoun, pronounced /dʒaun/. jogo is at rank #233, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʒo.ɡu/.

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 10260, this pair ranks #62,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of joan vs jogo

Shared letters: jo. Private to "joan": an. Private to "jogo": g.

"joan" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "jogo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • joan ← jaon · jjoan · joann · jona · ojan
  • jogo ← jgoo · jjogo · joggo · joog · ojgo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "joan" for "jogo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dʒaun/ versus /ˈʒo.ɡu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "joan" vs "jogo" - which ranks higher?
"jogo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #233 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "joan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jogo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "joan" and "jogo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "joan vs join". 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 #62,898 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