acentovsacertoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,347
“acento” frequency rank
#9,134
“acerto” frequency rank
30481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acento acerto
Definition sinal gráfico que altera o som de vogais ato ou efeito de fazer certo ou realizar corretamente

Where the eye mixes acento and acerto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acento and acerto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
acento
6 ch
acerto

Visual trap between acento and acerto

A purely visual mix-up. acento (/ɐ.ˈsẽ.tu/) and acerto (/ɐ.ˈseɾ.tu/) 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 a single letter - n in “acento” becomes r in “acerto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30481, 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/. acerto is at rank #9,134, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈseɾ.tu/.

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 30481, this pair ranks #37,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acento vs acerto

Shared letters: aceot. Private to "acento": n. Private to "acerto": r.

"acento" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "acerto" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acento ← accento · acennto · acenot · acentto · acetno · acneto · aecnto · caento
  • acerto ← accerto · acerot · acerrto · acertto · acetro · acreto · aecrto · caerto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acento" for "acerto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈsẽ.tu/ versus /ɐ.ˈseɾ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "acento" vs "acerto" - which ranks higher?
"acerto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,134 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.

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 "acento" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acerto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acento" and "acerto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aceno vs acento". 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 #37,859 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