Which to use
“ma” is a contraction and “malo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,420
- “ma” frequency rank
- #41,118
- “malo” frequency rank
- 44538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ma | malo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | contração do pronome pessoal do caso oblíquo me e a | mau, malévolo: |
Letter map: ma vs malo
Shared letters muted; letters that set ma and malo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - ma and malo
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ma is acontraction and maloanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ma” sits inside “malo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44538, 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/. malo is at rank #41,118, tagged as anadj.
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 44538, this pair ranks #20,923 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ma vs malo
Shared letters: am. Private to "ma": -. Private to "malo": lo.
"ma" · 2 letters · shape CV · "malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malo ← amlo · mallo · maol · mlao · mmalo
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ma" and "malo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ma" or "malo"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ma" and "malo".
- Full dictionary entry for "ma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,923 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ma" and "malo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malo". 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 #20,923 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.