arãovsatarWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arão is a noun, atar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arão” is a noun and “atar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,004
“arão” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
78258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arão atar
Definition ave marinha, airo, também chamado arau-comum, Uria aalge apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set arão and atar apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
arão
4 ch
atar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arão is Singular: /ɐ.'ɾaŋ/, /ɐ.'ɾa.o/, /ɐ.'ɾaw/ while atar is /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arão is recorded at frequency rank #30,004, classified as anoun, pronounced Singular: /ɐ.'ɾaŋ/, /ɐ.'ɾa.o/, /ɐ.'ɾaw/. atar is at rank #48,254, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 78258, this pair ranks #1,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arão vs atar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arão": . Private to "atar": t.

"arão" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ataraatr · atarr · attar

Frequency comparison

arão#30,004
atar#48,254

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arão" and "atar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arão" is a noun and "atar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "arão" or "atar"?
"arão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,004 in our Portuguese list, against #48,254 for "atar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering arão vs atar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “arão”; for a verb, it's “atar”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “arão” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list