acento vs acerta, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#21,347
“acento” frequency rank: #12,590
“acerta” frequency rank: 33937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	acento	acerta
Definition	sinal gráfico que altera o som de vogais	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo acertar

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch

acento

6 ch

acerta

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acento is /ɐ.ˈsẽ.tu/ while acerta is /ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/. 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 33937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acento is recorded at frequency rank #21,347, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsẽ.tu/. acerta is at rank #12,590, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/.

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 33937, this pair ranks #33,456 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acento vs acerta

Shared letters: acet. Private to "acento": no. Private to "acerta": r.

"acento" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "acerta" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

acento ← accento · acennto · acenot · acentto · acetno · acneto · aecnto · caento
acerta ← accerta · acerat · acerrta · acertta · acetra · acreta · aecrta · caerta

Frequency comparison

acento#21,347

acerta#12,590

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acento" and "acerta" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acento" is a noun and "acerta" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "acento" or "acerta"?

"acerta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,590 in our Portuguese list, against #21,347 for "acento". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering acento vs acerta

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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