persovsportoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: perso is a noun, porto is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perso” is a noun and “porto” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,116
“perso” frequency rank
#10,401
“porto” frequency rank
56517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perso porto
Definition Capacidad de hablar o actuar sin inhibiciones. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de portar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set perso and porto apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
perso
5 ch
porto

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perso is [ˈpeɾso] while porto is [ˈpoɾt̪o]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perso is recorded at frequency rank #46,116, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpeɾso]. porto is at rank #10,401, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpoɾt̪o].

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 56517, this pair ranks #74,309 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perso vs porto

Shared letters: opr. Private to "perso": es. Private to "porto": t.

"perso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "porto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persoeprso · persso · pesro · pperso · preso
  • portooprto · porot · porrto · portto · pporto · proto

Frequency comparison

perso#46,116
porto#10,401

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perso" and "porto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perso" is a noun and "porto" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perso" or "porto"?
"porto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,401 in our Spanish list, against #46,116 for "perso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering perso vs porto

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “perso”; for a verb, it's “porto”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “perso” 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