afetarvsafogarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,855
“afetar” frequency rank
#15,247
“afogar” frequency rank
23102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afetar afogar
Definition fingir matar alguém por afogamento, asfixia ou estrangulamento

Letter map: afetar vs afogar

Shared letters muted; letters that set afetar and afogar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
afetar
6 ch
afogar

Spelling & dictionary notes on afetar vs afogar

afetar and afogar 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afetar is recorded at frequency rank #7,855, classified as averb. afogar is at rank #15,247, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.fu.ˈɡaɾ/.

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 23102, this pair ranks #46,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of afetar vs afogar

Shared letters: afr. Private to "afetar": et. Private to "afogar": go.

"afetar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "afogar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • afetaraeftar · afeatr · afetarr · afetra · afettar · affetar · aftear · faetar
  • afogaraffogar · afgoar · afoagr · afogarr · afoggar · afogra · aofgar · faogar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "afetar" for "afogar" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "afetar" or "afogar"?
"afetar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,855 in our Portuguese list, against #15,247 for "afogar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "afetar" and "afogar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "afetar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "afogar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afetar" and "afogar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "afogar vs alojar". 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 #46,786 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