mãos vs mas, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“mãos” is a noun and “mas” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#761
“mãos” frequency rank: #25
“mas” frequency rank: 786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mãos	mas
Definition	plural de mão	conjunção adversativa, indica clara oposição entre ideias

Where the eye mixes mãos and mas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mãos runs 4 letters (CVVC) against mas's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch

mãos

3 ch

mas

Visual trap between mãos and mas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mãos is /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/ while mas is /ˈmɐʃ/. 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 conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mãos is recorded at frequency rank #761, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/. mas is at rank #25, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ˈmɐʃ/.

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 786, this pair ranks #74,870 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mãos vs mas

Shared letters: ms. Private to "mãos": oã. Private to "mas": a.

"mãos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mãos" and "mas" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mãos" is a noun and "mas" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "mãos" vs "mas" - which ranks higher?

"mas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our Portuguese list, against #761 for "mãos". 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 "mãos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "mas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #74,870 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"mãos" and "mas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mãos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,870 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.