paísvsParisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“país” and “Paris” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#214
“país” frequency rank
#1,368
“Paris” frequency rank
1582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature país Paris
Definition região; terra Paris

Where the eye mixes país and Paris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
país
5 ch
Paris

Look-alike desk: país vs Paris

A purely visual mix-up. país (/pɐ.ˈiʃ/) and Paris (/paˈriːs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

país is recorded at frequency rank #214, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈiʃ/. Paris is at rank #1,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced /paˈriːs/.

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 1582, this pair ranks #73,961 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of país vs Paris

Shared letters: aps. Private to "país": í. Private to "Paris": ir.

"país" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Paris" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Parisapris · pairs · pariss · parris · parsi · pparis · prais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "país" for "Paris" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈiʃ/ versus /paˈriːs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "país" or "Paris"?
"país" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #214 in our Portuguese list, against #1,368 for "Paris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "país" and "Paris" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "país" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Paris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,961 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "país" and "Paris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "país vs pix". 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 #73,961 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