zag vs zé, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“zag” is an adjective and “zé” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,172
“zag” frequency rank: #3,176
“zé” frequency rank: 47348
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	zag	zé
Definition	tímido	indivíduo comum, do povo

Letter map: zag vs zé

Shared letters muted; letters that set zag and zé apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

zag

2 ch

zé

Grammar separator: zag vs zé

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: zag is anadjective and zéanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

zag is recorded at frequency rank #44,172, classified as anadj, pronounced /t͡saːk/. zé is at rank #3,176, tagged as anoun.

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 47348, this pair ranks #17,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of zag vs zé

Shared letters: z. Private to "zag": ag. Private to "zé": é.

"zag" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "zé" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "zag" for "zé" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "zag" is an adjective and "zé" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "zag" vs "zé" - which ranks higher?

"zé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,176 in our Portuguese list, against #44,172 for "zag". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "zag" vs "zé" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "zag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "zé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #17,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"zag" and "zé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "zag vs zum". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.