whatvswhoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: what is a adverb, who is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

By · Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org ·

Which to use

“what” is an adverb and “who” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,525
“what” frequency rank
#5,055
“who” frequency rank
9580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature what who
Definition em alguma maneira ou grau; em parte; geralmente seguido de with que; o qual, os quais, a qual, as quais

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set what and who apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
what
3 ch
who

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: what is anadverb and whoapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

what is recorded at frequency rank #4,525, classified as anadv, pronounced /wɔt/. 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 9580, this pair ranks #63,801 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of what vs who

Shared letters: hw. Private to "what": at. Private to "who": o.

"what" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "who" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • what ← hwat · waht · whatt · whhat · whta · wwhat

Frequency comparison

what#4,525
who#5,055

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "what" and "who" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "what" is an adverb and "who" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "what" or "who"?
"what" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,525 in our Portuguese list, against #5,055 for "who". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering what vs who

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “what”; for a pronoun, it's “who”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “what” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list