Which to use
“man” is a pronoun and “mau” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,736
- “man” frequency rank
- #1,936
- “mau” frequency rank
- 4672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | man | mau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | se (atua como partícula de indeterminação do sujeito): | que não é de boa qualidade, ruim |
Letter map: man vs mau
Shared letters muted; letters that set man and mau apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: man vs mau
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: man is apronoun and mauanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “man” becomes u in “mau”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
man is recorded at frequency rank #2,736, classified as apron. 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 4672, this pair ranks #70,155 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of man vs mau
Shared letters: am. Private to "man": n. Private to "mau": u.
"man" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mau" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "man" and "mau" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "man" or "mau" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "man" and "mau".
- Full dictionary entry for "man" 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 #70,155 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "man" and "mau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs man". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #70,155 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.