Which to use
“was” is a verb and “who” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,582
- “was” frequency rank
- #5,055
- “who” frequency rank
- 12637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | was | who |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | primeira pessoa do singular do passado simples do indicativo do verbo "to be" | que; o qual, os quais, a qual, as quais |
Letter map: was vs who
Shared letters muted; letters that set was and who apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for was / who
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: was is averb and whoapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
was is recorded at frequency rank #7,582, classified as averb, pronounced /wɒz/. who is at rank #5,055, tagged as apron.
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 12637, this pair ranks #59,884 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of was vs who
Shared letters: w. Private to "was": as. Private to "who": ho.
"was" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "who" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "was" and "who" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "was" or "who" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "was" and "who". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "was" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "who" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,884 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "was" and "who" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "was vs watt". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #59,884 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.