bolavsbordaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,235
“bola” frequency rank
#8,724
“borda” frequency rank
9959
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bola borda
Definition sólido esférico qualquer (ver esfera) terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo bordar

Letter map: bola vs borda

Shared letters muted; letters that set bola and borda apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
bola
5 ch
borda

Role in the sentence - bola and borda

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bola is anoun and bordaaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9959, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bola is recorded at frequency rank #1,235, classified as anoun. 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 9959, this pair ranks #63,296 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bola vs borda

Shared letters: abo. Private to "bola": l. Private to "borda": dr.

"bola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "borda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bolabbola · bloa · boal · bolla · obla
  • bordabborda · bodra · borad · bordda · borrda · broda · obrda

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bola" and "borda" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bola" is a noun and "borda" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bola" or "borda" show up more?
"bola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,235 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.

What to do next

You've compared "bola" and "borda". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bola" 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 #63,296 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bola" 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 #63,296 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