Which to use
“vão” is an adjective and “ven” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #253
- “vão” frequency rank
- #33,656
- “ven” frequency rank
- 33909
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vão | ven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vazio | veia |
Letter map: vão vs ven
Shared letters muted; letters that set vão and ven apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. vão (CVV) and ven (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for vão / ven
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vão is anadjective and venanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vão is recorded at frequency rank #253, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃]. ven is at rank #33,656, tagged as anoun.
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 33909, this pair ranks #33,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vão vs ven
Shared letters: v. Private to "vão": oã. Private to "ven": en.
"vão" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "ven" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vão" for "ven" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vão" or "ven" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "vão" and "ven".
- Full dictionary entry for "vão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vão" and "ven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velo vs ven". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #33,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.