mamãovsmandoTell them apart

Quick tell: mamão is a adjective, mando is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mamão” is an adjective and “mando” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,399
“mamão” frequency rank
#5,551
“mando” frequency rank
28950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mamão mando
Definition que mama muito primeira pessoa do singular do presente indicativo do verbo mandar

Letter map: mamão vs mando

Shared letters muted; letters that set mamão and mando apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mamão (CVCVV) and mando (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
mamão
5 ch
mando

Role in the sentence - mamão and mando

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mamão is anadjective and mandoaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mamão is recorded at frequency rank #23,399, classified as anadj. mando is at rank #5,551, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃.du/.

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 28950, this pair ranks #39,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mamão vs mando

Shared letters: amo. Private to "mamão": ã. Private to "mando": dn.

"mamão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "mando" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mando ← amndo · madno · manddo · manndo · manod · mmando · mnado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mamão" for "mando" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mamão" is an adjective and "mando" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mamão" or "mando" show up more?
"mando" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,551 in our Portuguese list, against #23,399 for "mamão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "mamão" and "mando". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mamão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mando" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mamão" and "mando" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mamão". 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 #39,798 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