ma vs MPB, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,420
“ma” frequency rank: #12,295
“MPB” frequency rank: 15715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ma	MPB
Definition	contração do pronome pessoal do caso oblíquo me e a	sigla para música popular brasileira

Letter map: ma vs MPB

Shared letters muted; letters that set ma and MPB apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

MPB

Role in the sentence - ma and MPB

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ma is acontraction and MPBanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15715, 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/. MPB is at rank #12,295, tagged as anabbrev.

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 15715, this pair ranks #56,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ma vs MPB

Shared letters: m. Private to "ma": a. Private to "MPB": bp.

"ma" · 2 letters · shape CV · "MPB" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ma" for "MPB" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ma" or "MPB" show up more?

"ma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,420 in our Portuguese list, against #12,295 for "MPB". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "ma" vs "MPB" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "MPB" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ma" and "MPB" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs MPB". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.