alçarvsalterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alçar is a verb, alter is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alçar” is a verb and “alter” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,259
“alçar” frequency rank
#23,189
“alter” frequency rank
66448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alçar alter
Definition colocar mais alto, altear, erguer outro (dentre dois)

Letter map: alçar vs alter

Shared letters muted; letters that set alçar and alter apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. alçar and alter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
alçar
5 ch
alter

Role in the sentence - alçar and alter

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alçar is averb and alterapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alçar is recorded at frequency rank #43,259, classified as averb, pronounced /aɫ.ˈsaɾ/. alter is at rank #23,189, tagged as apron.

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 66448, this pair ranks #4,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alçar vs alter

Shared letters: alr. Private to "alçar": ç. Private to "alter": et.

"alçar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "alter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alter ← aletr · allter · alterr · altre · altter · atler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alçar" and "alter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alçar" is a verb and "alter" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alçar" or "alter"?
"alter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,189 in our Portuguese list, against #43,259 for "alçar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "alçar" vs "alter" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alçar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alçar" and "alter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alçar vs alce". 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 #4,985 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