alguémvsaluguerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alguém is a pronoun, aluguer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alguém” is a pronoun and “aluguer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#150
“alguém” frequency rank
#19,044
“aluguer” frequency rank
19194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alguém aluguer
Definition pessoa não identificada cedência ou compra de um objeto ou serviço por tempo e preço determinados

Where the eye mixes alguém and aluguer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. alguém runs 6 letters (VCCVVC) against aluguer's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
alguém
7 ch
aluguer

Why the eye confuses alguém with aluguer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alguém is [aw.ˈgẽj] while aluguer is /ɐ.lu.ˈɡɛɾ/. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alguém is recorded at frequency rank #150, classified as apron, pronounced [aw.ˈgẽj]. aluguer is at rank #19,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.lu.ˈɡɛɾ/.

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 19194, this pair ranks #51,602 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alguém vs aluguer

Shared letters: aglu. Private to "alguém": mé. Private to "aluguer": er.

"alguém" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "aluguer" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aluguer ← alguuer · alluguer · alugeur · alugguer · aluguerr · alugure · aluuger · aulguer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alguém" and "aluguer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alguém" is a pronoun and "aluguer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "alguém" vs "aluguer" - which ranks higher?
"alguém" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #150 in our Portuguese list, against #19,044 for "aluguer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alguém" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aluguer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,602 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alguém" and "aluguer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alugar vs aluguer". 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 #51,602 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