mamãvsmanWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#29,037
“mamã” frequency rank
#2,736
“man” frequency rank
31773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mamã man
Definition mãe se (atua como partícula de indeterminação do sujeito):

Letter map: mamã vs man

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

4 ch
mamã
3 ch
man

Role in the sentence - mamã and man

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mamã is anoun and manapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mamã is recorded at frequency rank #29,037, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɜˈmɜ̃/. 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 31773, this pair ranks #36,210 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mamã vs man

Shared letters: am. Private to "mamã": ã. Private to "man": n.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mamã" and "man" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mamã" is a noun and "man" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mamã" 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 #29,037 for "mamã". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "mamã" vs "man" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mamã" 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 #36,210 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mamã" and "man" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mamã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #36,210 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