Which to use
“acento” is a noun and “afeto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,347
- “acento” frequency rank
- #9,612
- “afeto” frequency rank
- 30959
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acento | afeto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sinal gráfico que altera o som de vogais | à feição, afeiçoado; dedicado; específico para: |
Where the eye mixes acento and afeto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acento runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against afeto's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between acento and afeto
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acento is /ɐ.ˈsẽ.tu/ while afeto is /ɐ.ˈfɛ.tu/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30959, 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/. afeto is at rank #9,612, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.ˈfɛ.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 30959, this pair ranks #37,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of acento vs afeto
Shared letters: aeot. Private to "acento": cn. Private to "afeto": f.
"acento" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "afeto" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "acento" and "afeto" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "acento" or "afeto" show up more?
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 "afeto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acento" and "afeto" 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 #37,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.