uh vs uma, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#14,258
“uh” frequency rank: #13
“uma” frequency rank: 14271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	uh	uma
Definition	expressa que algo não tem aprovação, é desaprovado, é reprovado, está desagradando	feminino de um

Letter map: uh vs uma

Shared letters muted; letters that set uh and uma apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

uma

Part-of-speech tell for uh / uma

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: uh is anintj and umaanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uh is recorded at frequency rank #14,258, 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 14271, this pair ranks #57,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of uh vs uma

Shared letters: u. Private to "uh": h. Private to "uma": am.

"uh" · 2 letters · shape VC · "uma" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "uh" vs "uma" - which ranks higher?

"uma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13 in our Portuguese list, against #14,258 for "uh". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "uh" vs "uma" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "uh" 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 #57,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"uh" and "uma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs uh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.