ma vs maço, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ma” is a contraction and “maço” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,420
“ma” frequency rank: #25,742
“maço” frequency rank: 29162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ma	maço
Definition	contração do pronome pessoal do caso oblíquo me e a	instrumento de madeira encabado para uso de carpinteiros, escultores, etc.

Where the eye mixes ma and maço

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch

4 ch

maço

Visual trap between ma and maço

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ma is /mɐ/ while maço is /ˈma.su/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ma” sits inside “maço”, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ma is recorded at frequency rank #3,420, classified as acontraction, pronounced /mɐ/. maço is at rank #25,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.su/.

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 29162, this pair ranks #39,552 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ma vs maço

Shared letters: am. Private to "ma": -. Private to "maço": oç.

"ma" · 2 letters · shape CV · "maço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ma" and "maço" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ma" is a contraction and "maço" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ma" vs "maço" - which ranks higher?

"ma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,420 in our Portuguese list, against #25,742 for "maço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "ma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "maço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #39,552 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ma" and "maço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maço". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,552 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.