acenar vs apesar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“acenar” is a verb and “apesar” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,245
“acenar” frequency rank: #404
“apesar” frequency rank: 33649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	acenar	apesar
Definition	fazer acenos	não obstante

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set acenar and apesar apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

acenar

6 ch

apesar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acenar is /ɐ.sɨ.ˈnaɾ/ while apesar is /ɐ.pe.ˈzaɾ/. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acenar is recorded at frequency rank #33,245, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.sɨ.ˈnaɾ/. apesar is at rank #404, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.pe.ˈzaɾ/.

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 33649, this pair ranks #33,801 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acenar vs apesar

Shared letters: aer. Private to "acenar": cn. Private to "apesar": ps.

"acenar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC · "apesar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

acenar ← accenar · aceanr · acenarr · acennar · acenra · acnear · aecnar · caenar
apesar ← aepsar · apeasr · apesarr · apesra · apessar · appesar · apsear · paesar

Frequency comparison

acenar#33,245

apesar#404

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acenar" and "apesar" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acenar" is a verb and "apesar" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "acenar" or "apesar"?

"apesar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #404 in our Portuguese list, against #33,245 for "acenar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering acenar vs apesar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “acenar”; for an adverb, it's “apesar”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “acenar” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable