aspasvsatrásConfusable pair

Quick tell: aspas is a noun, atrás is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aspas” is a noun and “atrás” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,062
“aspas” frequency rank
#441
“atrás” frequency rank
19503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aspas atrás
Definition o mesmo que asa (caixilhos) detrás, por trás

Where the eye mixes aspas and atrás

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aspas and atrás follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
aspas
5 ch
atrás

Look-alike desk: aspas vs atrás

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aspas is /ˈaʃ.pɐʃ/ while atrás is /ɐ.ˈtɾaʃ/. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aspas is recorded at frequency rank #19,062, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʃ.pɐʃ/. atrás is at rank #441, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɾaʃ/.

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 19503, this pair ranks #51,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aspas vs atrás

Shared letters: as. Private to "aspas": p. Private to "atrás": rtá.

"aspas" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "atrás" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aspas ← apsas · asaps · aspass · asppas · aspsa · asspas · sapas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aspas" and "atrás" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aspas" is a noun and "atrás" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aspas" or "atrás"?
"atrás" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #441 in our Portuguese list, against #19,062 for "aspas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "aspas" and "atrás" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aspas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atrás" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aspas" and "atrás" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atrás vs atroz". 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 #51,191 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