Which to use
“border” is a noun and “borrar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,220
- “border” frequency rank
- #41,857
- “borrar” frequency rank
- 62077
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | border | borrar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | fronteira | cobrir com bosta a eira terrosa, previamente à malha do cereal, para assim facilitar a lavoura. |
Where the eye mixes border and borrar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between border and borrar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: border is /bɔːdə/ while borrar is /bo.ˈraɾ/. 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 62077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
border is recorded at frequency rank #20,220, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɔːdə/. 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 62077, this pair ranks #6,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of border vs borrar
Shared letters: bor. Private to "border": de. Private to "borrar": a.
"border" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "borrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "border" and "borrar" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "border" or "borrar" show up more?
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 "border" 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 #6,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "border" 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 #6,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.