pa vs pai, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pa” is a preposition and “pai” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,329
“pa” frequency rank: #240
“pai” frequency rank: 5569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pa	pai
Definition	para, pra	homem que tem filhos, naturais ou adotivos

Letter map: pa vs pai

Shared letters muted; letters that set pa and pai apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

pai

Role in the sentence - pa and pai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pa is apreposition and paianoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pa” sits inside “pai”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pa is recorded at frequency rank #5,329, classified as aprep. pai is at rank #240, tagged as anoun.

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 5569, this pair ranks #69,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pa vs pai

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pa": -. Private to "pai": i.

"pa" · 2 letters · shape CV · "pai" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pa" and "pai" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "pa" vs "pai" - which ranks higher?

"pai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #240 in our Portuguese list, against #5,329 for "pa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "pa" vs "pai" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "pa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "pai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #69,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"pa" and "pai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pa vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.