platavsportaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: plata is a adjective, porta is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“plata” is an adjective and “porta” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,388
“plata” frequency rank
#20,373
“porta” frequency rank
68761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plata porta
Definition silbern; versilbert 3. Person Singular Indikativ historisches Perfekt Aktiv des Verbs porter

Where the eye mixes plata and porta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. plata (CCVCV) and porta (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
plata
5 ch
porta

Why the eye confuses plata with porta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plata is [ˈplata] while porta is [pɔʁ.ta]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plata is recorded at frequency rank #48,388, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈplata]. porta is at rank #20,373, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɔʁ.ta].

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 68761, this pair ranks #497,647 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of plata vs porta

Shared letters: apt. Private to "plata": l. Private to "porta": or.

"plata" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plata ← lpata · palta · plaat · platta · pllata · pltaa · pplata
  • porta ← oprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "plata" and "porta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plata" is an adjective and "porta" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "plata" or "porta" show up more?
"porta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,373 in our German list, against #48,388 for "plata". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #497,647 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plata" and "porta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plants vs plata". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #497,647 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list