afãvsatarWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#47,702
“afã” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
95956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afã atar
Definition azáfama; ânsia; lida: apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set afã and atar apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
afã
4 ch
atar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: afã is /ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/ while atar is /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afã is recorded at frequency rank #47,702, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/. atar is at rank #48,254, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.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 95956, this pair ranks #53 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of afã vs atar

Shared letters: a. Private to "afã": . Private to "atar": rt.

"afã" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ataraatr · atarr · attar

Frequency comparison

afã#47,702
atar#48,254

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "afã" and "atar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "afã" is a noun and "atar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "afã" or "atar"?
"afã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,702 in our Portuguese list, against #48,254 for "atar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering afã vs atar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list