mãevsmahTell them apart

Quick tell: mãe is a noun, mah is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mãe” is a noun and “mah” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#170
“mãe” frequency rank
#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
29590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mãe mah
Definition mulher que tem ou teve filhos, naturais ou adotivos usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção

Letter map: mãe vs mah

Shared letters muted; letters that set mãe and mah apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mãe
3 ch
mah

Part-of-speech tell for mãe / mah

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mãe is anoun and mahanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mãe is recorded at frequency rank #170, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃j̃/. mah is at rank #29,420, tagged as anintj.

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 29590, this pair ranks #38,992 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mãe vs mah

Shared letters: m. Private to "mãe": . Private to "mah": ah.

"mãe" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mãe" and "mah" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mãe" is a noun and "mah" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mãe" vs "mah" - which ranks higher?
"mãe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #170 in our Portuguese list, against #29,420 for "mah". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mãe" and "mah".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mãe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,992 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mãe" and "mah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,992 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