manévsmatemWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mané is a noun, matem is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mané” is a noun and “matem” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,814
“mané” frequency rank
#18,638
“matem” frequency rank
35452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mané matem
Definition pessoa boba, tolo terceira pessoa do plural do presente do modo subjuntivo do verbo matar

Letter map: mané vs matem

Shared letters muted; letters that set mané and matem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mané
5 ch
matem

Role in the sentence - mané and matem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mané is anoun and matemaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mané is recorded at frequency rank #16,814, classified as anoun. matem is at rank #18,638, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈma.tẽɲ/.

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 35452, this pair ranks #31,595 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mané vs matem

Shared letters: am. Private to "mané": . Private to "matem": et.

"mané" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "matem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matemamtem · maetm · matemm · matme · mattem · mmatem · mtaem

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mané" and "matem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mané" is a noun and "matem" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mané" or "matem" show up more?
"mané" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,814 in our Portuguese list, against #18,638 for "matem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mané" and "matem".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mané" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,595 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mané" and "matem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "matem vs matiz". 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 #31,595 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