maçãvsmarchaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,309
“maçã” frequency rank
#4,003
“marcha” frequency rank
11312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maçã marcha
Definition o fruto comestível da macieira ato de marchar

Where the eye mixes maçã and marcha

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

4 ch
maçã
6 ch
marcha

Visual trap between maçã and marcha

A purely visual mix-up. maçã (/mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/) and marcha (/ˈmaɾ.ʃɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11312, 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/. marcha is at rank #4,003, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ.ʃɐ/.

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 11312, this pair ranks #61,569 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maçã vs marcha

Shared letters: am. Private to "maçã": ãç. Private to "marcha": chr.

"maçã" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "marcha" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marchaamrcha · macrha · marcah · marccha · marchha · marhca · marrcha · mmarcha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maçã" and "marcha" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/ versus /ˈmaɾ.ʃɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maçã" vs "marcha" - which ranks higher?
"marcha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,003 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "maçã" and "marcha" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maçã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marcha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,569 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maçã" and "marcha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maçã". 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 #61,569 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