Which to use
“vale” is a noun and “vão” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #576
- “vale” frequency rank
- #253
- “vão” frequency rank
- 829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vale | vão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | planície entre duas montanhas ou colinas | vazio |
Where the eye mixes vale and vão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vale is /ˈva.lɨ/ while vão is /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vale is recorded at frequency rank #576, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈva.lɨ/. vão is at rank #253, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃].
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 829, this pair ranks #74,809 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vale vs vão
Shared letters: v. Private to "vale": ael. Private to "vão": oã.
"vale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "vão" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- vale ← avle · vael · vlae · vvale