maçãvsmanWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: maçã is a noun, man is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maçã” is a noun and “man” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,309
“maçã” frequency rank
#2,736
“man” frequency rank
10045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maçã man
Definition o fruto comestível da macieira se (atua como partícula de indeterminação do sujeito):

Letter map: maçã vs man

Shared letters muted; letters that set maçã and man apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
maçã
3 ch
man

Role in the sentence - maçã and man

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maçã is anoun and manapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maçã is recorded at frequency rank #7,309, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/. man is at rank #2,736, tagged as apron.

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 10045, this pair ranks #63,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maçã vs man

Shared letters: am. Private to "maçã": ãç. Private to "man": n.

"maçã" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "man" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maçã" and "man" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maçã" is a noun and "man" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maçã" vs "man" - which ranks higher?
"man" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,736 in our Portuguese list, against #7,309 for "maçã". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maçã" and "man".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maçã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "man" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maçã" and "man" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maçã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,183 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