quervsquisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: quer is a conjunction, quis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“quer” is a conjunction and “quis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#129
“quer” frequency rank
#1,256
“quis” frequency rank
1385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quer quis
Definition ou primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo querer

Letter map: quer vs quis

Shared letters muted; letters that set quer and quis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
quer
4 ch
quis

Part-of-speech tell for quer / quis

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: quer is aconjunction and quisaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quer is recorded at frequency rank #129, classified as aconj. quis is at rank #1,256, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkis/.

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 1385, this pair ranks #74,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quer vs quis

Shared letters: qu. Private to "quer": er. Private to "quis": is.

"quer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "quis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • querqeur · qquer · querr · qure · uqer
  • quisqius · qquis · quiss · qusi · uqis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quer" and "quis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quer" is a conjunction and "quis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "quer" vs "quis" - which ranks higher?
"quer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #129 in our Portuguese list, against #1,256 for "quis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "quer" and "quis".

  • Full dictionary entry for "quer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quer" and "quis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quis vs quit". 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 #74,195 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