acontecevsacontecerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#562
“acontece” frequency rank
#733
“acontecer” frequency rank
1295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acontece acontecer
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo acontecer existir como acontecimento

Letter map: acontece vs acontecer

Shared letters muted; letters that set acontece and acontecer apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.

8 ch
acontece
9 ch
acontecer

Spelling & dictionary notes on acontece vs acontecer

acontece and acontecer are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “acontece” sits inside “acontecer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acontece is recorded at frequency rank #562, classified as averb, pronounced /a.kõ(ŋ).ˈtɛ.se/, /a.kõ(ŋ).ˈtɛ.si/. acontecer is at rank #733, tagged as averb.

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 1295, this pair ranks #74,285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acontece vs acontecer

Shared letters: acenot. Private to "acontece": -. Private to "acontecer": r.

"acontece" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "acontecer" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aconteceaccontece · acnotece · aconetce · aconntece · acontcee · acontecce · aconteec · aconttece
  • aconteceraccontecer · acnotecer · aconetcer · aconntecer · acontceer · aconteccer · acontecerr · acontecre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acontece" for "acontecer" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “acontece” sits inside “acontecer”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "acontece" vs "acontecer" - which ranks higher?
"acontece" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #562 in our Portuguese list, against #733 for "acontecer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "acontece" vs "acontecer" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acontece" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acontecer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acontece" and "acontecer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acontecer vs anoitecer". 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 #74,285 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