ararvsareWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,176
“arar” frequency rank
#4,038
“are” frequency rank
50214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arar are
Definition lavrar (a terra) com arado unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados

Where the eye mixes arar and are

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
arar
3 ch
are

Look-alike desk: arar vs are

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arar is /ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/ while are is /ˈa.ɾe/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arar is recorded at frequency rank #46,176, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/. are is at rank #4,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾe/.

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 50214, this pair ranks #14,766 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arar vs are

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arar": -. Private to "are": e.

"arar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • araraarr · ararr · arra · arrar · raar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arar" for "are" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arar" is a verb and "are" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "arar" or "are" show up more?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,038 in our Portuguese list, against #46,176 for "arar". 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 "arar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,766 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arar" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arar vs atar". 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 #14,766 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