vasvsvósWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vas is a noun, vós is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vas” is a noun and “vós” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,077
“vas” frequency rank
#6,014
“vós” frequency rank
44091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vas vós
Definition vaso usado para indicar as pessoas a quem se fala

Letter map: vas vs vós

Shared letters muted; letters that set vas and vós apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
vas
3 ch
vós

Grammar separator: vas vs vós

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vas is anoun and vósapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “vas” becomes ó in “vós”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vas is recorded at frequency rank #38,077, classified as anoun. vós is at rank #6,014, tagged as apron, pronounced [vɔʃ], [vɔs].

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 44091, this pair ranks #21,451 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vas vs vós

Shared letters: sv. Private to "vas": a. Private to "vós": ó.

"vas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vós" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vas" for "vós" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vas" is a noun and "vós" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vas" or "vós" show up more?
"vós" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,014 in our Portuguese list, against #38,077 for "vas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "vas" and "vós".

  • Full dictionary entry for "vas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vós" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,451 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vas" and "vós" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vas vs vet". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,451 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list