abertavsacertarConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,694
“aberta” frequency rank
#5,590
“acertar” frequency rank
7284
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aberta acertar
Definition fenda pôr acerto em

Where the eye mixes aberta and acertar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. aberta runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against acertar's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aberta
7 ch
acertar

Visual trap between aberta and acertar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aberta is /ɐ.ˈbɛɾ.tɐ/ while acertar is /ɐ.sɨɾ.ˈtaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aberta is recorded at frequency rank #1,694, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈbɛɾ.tɐ/. acertar is at rank #5,590, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.sɨɾ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 7284, this pair ranks #66,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aberta vs acertar

Shared letters: aert. Private to "aberta": b. Private to "acertar": c.

"aberta" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "acertar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aberta ← abberta · aberat · aberrta · abertta · abetra · abreta · aebrta · baerta
  • acertar ← accertar · aceratr · acerrtar · acertarr · acertra · acerttar · acetrar · acretar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aberta" and "acertar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aberta" is a noun and "acertar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "aberta" or "acertar" show up more?
"aberta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,694 in our Portuguese list, against #5,590 for "acertar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aberta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acertar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aberta" and "acertar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acentuar vs acertar". 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 #66,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list