perdervsPorterConfusable pair

Quick tell: perder is a verb, Porter is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perder” is a verb and “Porter” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#855
“perder” frequency rank
#17,794
“Porter” frequency rank
18649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perder Porter
Definition Dejar de poseer un objeto o bien material. Apellido

Where the eye mixes perder and Porter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
perder
6 ch
Porter

Visual trap between perder and Porter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perder is [peɾˈð̞eɾ] while Porter is [poɾˈt̪eɾ]. 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 (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perder is recorded at frequency rank #855, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾˈð̞eɾ]. Porter is at rank #17,794, tagged as aname, pronounced [poɾˈt̪eɾ].

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 18649, this pair ranks #267,028 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perder vs Porter

Shared letters: epr. Private to "perder": d. Private to "Porter": ot.

"perder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Porter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdereprder · pedrer · perdder · perderr · perdre · peredr · perrder · pperder
  • Porteroprter · poretr · porrter · porterr · portre · portter · potrer · pporter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perder" and "Porter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perder" is a verb and "Porter" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "perder" or "Porter" show up more?
"perder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #855 in our Spanish list, against #17,794 for "Porter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Porter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,028 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perder" and "Porter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Porter vs potes". 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 #267,028 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list