Which to use
“mais” is an adverb and “mas” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23
- “mais” frequency rank
- #25
- “mas” frequency rank
- 48
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mais | mas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | avançadamente (designa aumento) | conjunção adversativa, indica clara oposição entre ideias |
Where the eye mixes mais and mas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mais vs mas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mais is /mäjʃ/ while mas is /ˈmɐʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mais is recorded at frequency rank #23, classified as anadv, pronounced /mäjʃ/. mas is at rank #25, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ˈmɐʃ/.
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 48, this pair ranks #75,604 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mais vs mas
Shared letters: ams. Private to "mais": i. Private to "mas": -.
"mais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mais ← amis · maiss · masi · mias · mmais
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mais" for "mas" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mais" or "mas"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,604 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mais" and "mas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mas". 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 #75,604 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.