Which to use
“alter” is a pronoun and “alterar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,189
- “alter” frequency rank
- #5,593
- “alterar” frequency rank
- 28782
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alter | alterar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | outro (dentre dois) | tornar diferente em algum aspecto como tamanho, peso, estilo, etc |
Letter map: alter vs alterar
Shared letters muted; letters that set alter and alterar apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for alter / alterar
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alter is apronoun and alteraraverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “alter” sits inside “alterar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alter is recorded at frequency rank #23,189, classified as apron. alterar is at rank #5,593, tagged as averb, pronounced /aɫ.tɨ.ˈɾaɾ/.
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 28782, this pair ranks #40,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of alter vs alterar
Shared letters: aelrt. Private to "alter": -. Private to "alterar": -.
"alter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "alterar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "alter" and "alterar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "alter" or "alterar" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "alter" vs "alterar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "alter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alterar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alter" and "alterar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alles vs alter". 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 #40,000 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.