Which to use
“vão” is an adjective and “voou” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #253
- “vão” frequency rank
- #11,192
- “voou” frequency rank
- 11445
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vão | voou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vazio | terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo voar |
Where the eye mixes vão and voou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses vão with voou
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vão is /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃] while voou is /vʊ.ˈow/, /vʊ.ˈo/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11445, 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]. voou is at rank #11,192, tagged as averb, pronounced /vʊ.ˈow/, /vʊ.ˈo/.
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 11445, this pair ranks #61,385 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vão vs voou
Shared letters: ov. Private to "vão": ã. Private to "voou": u.
"vão" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "voou" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- voou ← ovou · vou · vouo · vvoou
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vão" and "voou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vão" or "voou" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "vão" and "voou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,385 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vão" and "voou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vão vs velo". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #61,385 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.