uai vs uma, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“uai” is an intj and “uma” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,566
“uai” frequency rank: #13
“uma” frequency rank: 37579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	uai	uma
Definition	expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida	feminino de um

Letter map: uai vs uma

Shared letters muted; letters that set uai and uma apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

uai

3 ch

uma

Role in the sentence - uai and uma

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: uai is anintj and umaanarticle. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uai is recorded at frequency rank #37,566, classified as anintj. uma is at rank #13, tagged as anarticle, pronounced /ˈu.mɐ/.

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 37579, this pair ranks #29,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uai vs uma

Shared letters: au. Private to "uai": i. Private to "uma": m.

"uai" · 3 letters · shape VVV · "uma" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "uai" for "uma" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uai" is an intj and "uma" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "uai" or "uma" show up more?

"uma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13 in our Portuguese list, against #37,566 for "uai". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "uai" and "uma". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "uai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "uma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #29,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"uai" and "uma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs uai". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.