adoção vs adotado, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“adoção” is a noun and “adotado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,487
“adoção” frequency rank: #7,492
“adotado” frequency rank: 12979
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	adoção	adotado
Definition	ação ou resultado de adotar, de aceitar (alguém ou algo)	quem foi legalmente acolhido como filho; que foi alvo de adoção

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set adoção and adotado apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

adoção

7 ch

adotado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adoção is /a.doˈsɐ̃w̃/ while adotado is /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta.du/. 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 12979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adoção is recorded at frequency rank #5,487, classified as anoun, pronounced /a.doˈsɐ̃w̃/. adotado is at rank #7,492, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta.du/.

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 12979, this pair ranks #59,464 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adoção vs adotado

Shared letters: ado. Private to "adoção": ãç. Private to "adotado": t.

"adoção" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV · "adotado" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

adotado ← addotado · adoatdo · adotaddo · adotaod · adotdao · adottado · adtoado · aodtado

Frequency comparison

adoção#5,487

adotado#7,492

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adoção" and "adotado" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adoção" is a noun and "adotado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "adoção" or "adotado"?

"adoção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,487 in our Portuguese list, against #7,492 for "adotado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering adoção vs adotado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “adoção”; for an adjective, it's “adotado”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “adoção” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable