acertavsacertoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,590
“acerta” frequency rank
#9,134
“acerto” frequency rank
21724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acerta acerto
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo acertar ato ou efeito de fazer certo ou realizar corretamente

Where the eye mixes acerta and acerto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acerta 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
acerta
6 ch
acerto

Visual trap between acerta and acerto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acerta is /ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/ while acerto is /ɐ.ˈseɾ.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “acerta” becomes o in “acerto”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acerta is recorded at frequency rank #12,590, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/. 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 21724, this pair ranks #48,457 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acerta vs acerto

Shared letters: acert. Private to "acerta": -. Private to "acerto": o.

"acerta" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "acerto" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acerta ← accerta · acerat · acerrta · acertta · acetra · acreta · aecrta · caerta
  • acerto ← accerto · acerot · acerrto · acertto · acetro · acreto · aecrto · caerto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acerta" and "acerto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acerta" is a verb and "acerto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "acerta" 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 #12,590 for "acerta". 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 "acerta" 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 #48,457 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acerta" and "acerto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aceno vs acerto". 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 #48,457 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