mãevsmenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#170
“mãe” frequency rank
#6,318
“men” frequency rank
6488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mãe men
Definition mulher que tem ou teve filhos, naturais ou adotivos pronome indefinido da terceira pessoa do singular, equivalente à partícula "se"

Letter map: mãe vs men

Shared letters muted; letters that set mãe and men apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
mãe
3 ch
men

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mãe is anoun and menapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mãe is recorded at frequency rank #170, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃j̃/. men is at rank #6,318, 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 6488, this pair ranks #67,938 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mãe vs men

Shared letters: em. Private to "mãe": ã. Private to "men": n.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mãe" and "men" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mãe" is a noun and "men" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mãe" or "men"?
"mãe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #170 in our Portuguese list, against #6,318 for "men". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list