cabovscobroConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,092
“cabo” frequency rank
#32,110
“cobro” frequency rank
33202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabo cobro
Definition patente militar abaixo do sargento e acima do soldado primeira pessoa do singular do presente indicativo do verbo cobrar

Letter map: cabo vs cobro

Shared letters muted; letters that set cabo and cobro apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
cabo
5 ch
cobro

Role in the sentence - cabo and cobro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cabo is anoun and cobroaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabo is recorded at frequency rank #1,092, classified as anoun. cobro is at rank #32,110, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈko.bɾu/.

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 33202, this pair ranks #34,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabo vs cobro

Shared letters: bco. Private to "cabo": a. Private to "cobro": r.

"cabo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cobro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caboacbo · cabbo · caob · cbao · ccabo
  • cobrocboro · ccobro · cobbro · cobor · cobrro · corbo · ocbro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabo" for "cobro" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabo" is a noun and "cobro" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cabo" vs "cobro" - which ranks higher?
"cabo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,092 in our Portuguese list, against #32,110 for "cobro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cabo" and "cobro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cobro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabo" and "cobro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cobro vs coito". 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 #34,374 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