mamã vs mau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#29,037
“mamã” frequency rank: #1,936
“mau” frequency rank: 30973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mamã	mau
Definition	mãe	que não é de boa qualidade, ruim

Where the eye mixes mamã and mau

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

4 ch

mamã

3 ch

mau

Look-alike desk: mamã vs mau

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mamã is /mɜˈmɜ̃/ while mau is /ˈmaw/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30973, 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/. mau is at rank #1,936, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaw/.

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 30973, this pair ranks #37,258 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mamã vs mau

Shared letters: am. Private to "mamã": ã. Private to "mau": u.

"mamã" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mamã" for "mau" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mamã" is a noun and "mau" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mamã" or "mau" show up more?

"mau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,936 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "mamã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #37,258 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mamã" and "mau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mamã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #37,258 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.