bordavsborrarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“borda” and “borrar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,724
“borda” frequency rank
#41,857
“borrar” frequency rank
50581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature borda borrar
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo bordar cobrir com bosta a eira terrosa, previamente à malha do cereal, para assim facilitar a lavoura.

Where the eye mixes borda and borrar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. borda runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against borrar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
borda
6 ch
borrar

Why the eye confuses borda with borrar

A purely visual mix-up. borda (/ˈbɔɾ.dɐ/) and borrar (/bo.ˈraɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

borda is recorded at frequency rank #8,724, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɔɾ.dɐ/. borrar is at rank #41,857, tagged as averb, pronounced /bo.ˈraɾ/.

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 50581, this pair ranks #14,388 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of borda vs borrar

Shared letters: abor. Private to "borda": d. Private to "borrar": -.

"borda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "borrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • borda ← bborda · bodra · borad · bordda · borrda · broda · obrda
  • borrar ← bborrar · borarr · borrarr · borrra · brorar · obrrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "borda" and "borrar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɔɾ.dɐ/ versus /bo.ˈraɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "borda" or "borrar" show up more?
"borda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,724 in our Portuguese list, against #41,857 for "borrar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "borda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "borrar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,388 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "borda" and "borrar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borrão vs borrar". 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 #14,388 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