Which to use
“água” and “alda” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #254
- “água” frequency rank
- #30,810
- “alda” frequency rank
- 31064
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | água | alda |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | substância (H₂O) líquida e incolor, insípida e inodora, essencial para a vida da maior parte dos organismos vivos e excelente solvente para muitas outras substâncias; óxido de hidrogênio | vaga, onda marinha |
Where the eye mixes água and alda
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. água (VCVV) and alda (VCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses água with alda
A purely visual mix-up. água (/ˈa.gwɐ/) and alda (/ˈal.da/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
água is recorded at frequency rank #254, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.gwɐ/. alda is at rank #30,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈal.da/.
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 31064, this pair ranks #37,149 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of água vs alda
Shared letters: a. Private to "água": guá. Private to "alda": dl.
"água" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "alda" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- alda ← adla · alad · aldda · allda · lada
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "água" for "alda" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "água" or "alda" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "água" and "alda" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "água" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,149 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "água" and "alda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alda vs audaz". 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 #37,149 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.