warvswirConfusable pair

Quick tell: war is a verb, wir is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“war” is a verb and “wir” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,265
“war” frequency rank
#44,167
“wir” frequency rank
49432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature war wir
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo sein nós

Where the eye mixes war and wir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
war
3 ch
wir

Why the eye confuses war with wir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: war is /ˈvaːɐ̯/ while wir is /vi:ɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “war” becomes i in “wir”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

war is recorded at frequency rank #5,265, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈvaːɐ̯/. wir is at rank #44,167, tagged as apron, pronounced /vi:ɐ/.

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 49432, this pair ranks #15,571 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of war vs wir

Shared letters: rw. Private to "war": a. Private to "wir": i.

"war" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "war" and "wir" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "war" is a verb and "wir" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "war" or "wir"?
"war" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,265 in our Portuguese list, against #44,167 for "wir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "war" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,571 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "war" and "wir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wir vs worm". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,571 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