abandona vs abandonar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“abandona” and “abandonar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,199
“abandona” frequency rank: #3,871
“abandonar” frequency rank: 15070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	abandona	abandonar
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo abandonar	deixar ao abandono

Where the eye mixes abandona and abandonar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. abandona runs 8 letters (VCVCCVCV) against abandonar's 9 (VCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch

abandona

9 ch

abandonar

Visual trap between abandona and abandonar

A purely visual mix-up. abandona (/ɐ.bãⁿ.ˈdo.nɐ/) and abandonar (/ɐ.bɐ̃.du.ˈnaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “abandona” sits inside “abandonar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abandona is recorded at frequency rank #11,199, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.bãⁿ.ˈdo.nɐ/. abandonar is at rank #3,871, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.bɐ̃.du.ˈnaɾ/.

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 15070, this pair ranks #56,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abandona vs abandonar

Shared letters: abdno. Private to "abandona": -. Private to "abandonar": r.

"abandona" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV · "abandonar" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

abandona ← aabndona · abadnona · abanddona · abandnoa · abandoan · abandonna · abanndona · abanodna
abandonar ← aabndonar · abadnonar · abanddonar · abandnoar · abandoanr · abandonarr · abandonnar · abandonra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abandona" and "abandonar" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/ɐ.bãⁿ.ˈdo.nɐ/ versus /ɐ.bɐ̃.du.ˈnaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "abandona" vs "abandonar" - which ranks higher?

"abandonar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,871 in our Portuguese list, against #11,199 for "abandona". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "abandona" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "abandonar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
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 #56,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.