acertavsalertarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,590
“acerta” frequency rank
#10,997
“alertar” frequency rank
23587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acerta alertar
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo acertar pôr em alerta

Where the eye mixes acerta and alertar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acerta
7 ch
alertar

Look-alike desk: acerta vs alertar

A purely visual mix-up. acerta (/ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/) and alertar (/ɐ.lɨɾ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23587, 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/. alertar is at rank #10,997, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.lɨɾ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 23587, this pair ranks #46,220 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acerta vs alertar

Shared letters: aert. Private to "acerta": c. Private to "alertar": l.

"acerta" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "alertar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acertaaccerta · acerat · acerrta · acertta · acetra · acreta · aecrta · caerta
  • alertaraelrtar · aleratr · alerrtar · alertarr · alertra · alerttar · allertar · alretar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acerta" and "alertar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈsɛɹ.tɐ/ versus /ɐ.lɨɾ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "acerta" or "alertar" show up more?
"alertar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,997 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acerta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alertar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,220 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acerta" and "alertar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alertar vs atestar". 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 #46,220 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