Which to use
“mas” is a conjunction and “mens” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25
- “mas” frequency rank
- #47,487
- “mens” frequency rank
- 47512
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mas | mens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | conjunção adversativa, indica clara oposição entre ideias | pessoa, humano, homem |
Where the eye mixes mas and mens
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mas runs 3 letters (CVC) against mens's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mas vs mens
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mas is /ˈmɐʃ/ while mens is [ mɛns ]. 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 (conjunction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mas is recorded at frequency rank #25, classified as aconj, pronounced /ˈmɐʃ/. mens is at rank #47,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ mɛns ].
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 47512, this pair ranks #17,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mas vs mens
Shared letters: ms. Private to "mas": a. Private to "mens": en.
"mas" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mens ← emns · menns · menss · mesn · mmens · mnes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mas" and "mens" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mas" or "mens" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "mas" and "mens" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mas" and "mens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mens vs messe". 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 #17,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.