ui vs uma, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#19,875
“ui” frequency rank: #13
“uma” frequency rank: 19888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ui	uma
Definition	exprime surpresa, admiração, repugnância	feminino de um

Where the eye mixes ui and uma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

uma

Visual trap between ui and uma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ui is /ˈuj/ while uma is /ˈu.mɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ui is recorded at frequency rank #19,875, classified as anintj, pronounced /ˈuj/. 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 19888, this pair ranks #50,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ui vs uma

Shared letters: u. Private to "ui": i. Private to "uma": am.

"ui" · 2 letters · shape VV · "uma" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"uma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13 in our Portuguese list, against #19,875 for "ui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "ui" 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 #50,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ui" and "uma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs ui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #50,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.