movsmuiConfusable pair

Quick tell: mo is a pronoun, mui is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mo” is a pronoun and “mui” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,745
“mo” frequency rank
#23,741
“mui” frequency rank
28486
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mo mui
Definition combinação de me (pronome pessoal oblíquo átono) e o (pronome pessoal oblíquo átono, pronome demonstrativo masculino ou pronome demonstrativo neutro) em alto grau

Where the eye mixes mo and mui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
mo
3 ch
mui

Visual trap between mo and mui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mo is /mo/ while mui is /ˈmũj/. 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 (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mo is recorded at frequency rank #4,745, classified as apron, pronounced /mo/. mui is at rank #23,741, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈmũj/.

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 28486, this pair ranks #40,324 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mo vs mui

Shared letters: m. Private to "mo": o. Private to "mui": iu.

"mo" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "mui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mo" for "mui" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mo" is a pronoun and "mui" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mo" or "mui" show up more?
"mo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,745 in our Portuguese list, against #23,741 for "mui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,324 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mo" and "mui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,324 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