Which to use
“mãos” is a noun and “menos” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #761
- “mãos” frequency rank
- #149
- “menos” frequency rank
- 910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mãos | menos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural de mão | forma comparativa de pouco; quantidade inferior de: |
Where the eye mixes mãos and menos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mãos is /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/ while menos is /ˈme.nʊs/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mãos is recorded at frequency rank #761, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/. menos is at rank #149, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈme.nʊs/.
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 910, this pair ranks #74,717 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mãos vs menos
Shared letters: mos. Private to "mãos": ã. Private to "menos": en.
"mãos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "menos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- menos ← emnos · mennos · menoss · menso · meons · mmenos · mneos