bandavsbordaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#908
“banda” frequency rank
#8,724
“borda” frequency rank
9632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banda borda
Definition parte lateral de um objeto terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo bordar

Where the eye mixes banda and borda

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
banda
5 ch
borda

Visual trap between banda and borda

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: banda is /ˈbɐ̃.dɐ/ while borda is /ˈbɔɾ.dɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 9632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banda is recorded at frequency rank #908, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɐ̃.dɐ/. borda is at rank #8,724, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbɔɾ.dɐ/.

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 9632, this pair ranks #63,737 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of banda vs borda

Shared letters: abd. Private to "banda": n. Private to "borda": or.

"banda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "borda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bandaabnda · badna · banad · bandda · bannda · bbanda · bnada
  • bordabborda · bodra · borad · bordda · borrda · broda · obrda

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "banda" and "borda" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "banda" is a noun and "borda" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "banda" or "borda"?
"banda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #908 in our Portuguese list, against #8,724 for "borda". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "borda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,737 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banda" and "borda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borda vs borrão". 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 #63,737 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