Which to use
“mano” is a noun and “mo” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,493
- “mano” frequency rank
- #4,745
- “mo” frequency rank
- 8238
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mano | mo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | irmão (todas as acepções, exceto Religião) | combinação de me (pronome pessoal oblíquo átono) e o (pronome pessoal oblíquo átono, pronome demonstrativo masculino ou pronome demonstrativo neutro) |
Where the eye mixes mano and mo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mano vs mo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mano is /ˈmã.nu/ while mo is /mo/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mano is recorded at frequency rank #3,493, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmã.nu/. mo is at rank #4,745, tagged as apron, pronounced /mo/.
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 8238, this pair ranks #65,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mano vs mo
Shared letters: mo. Private to "mano": an. Private to "mo": -.
"mano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mo" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mano ← amno · manno · maon · mmano · mnao
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mano" and "mo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mano" or "mo" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mano" and "mo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mano" and "mo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mo". 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 #65,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.