cafévscaraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: café is a noun, cara is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“café” is a noun and “cara” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#931
“café” frequency rank
#195
“cara” frequency rank
1126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature café cara
Definition fruto gerado pelo cafeeiro em direção a, para, contra

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set café and cara apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
café
4 ch
cara

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: café is anoun and caraapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

café is recorded at frequency rank #931, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈfɛ/. cara is at rank #195, tagged as aprep.

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 1126, this pair ranks #74,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of café vs cara

Shared letters: ac. Private to "café": . Private to "cara": r.

"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caraacra · caar · carra · ccara · craa

Frequency comparison

café#931
cara#195

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "café" and "cara" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "café" is a noun and "cara" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "café" or "cara"?
"cara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #195 in our Portuguese list, against #931 for "café". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering café vs cara

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “café”; for a preposition, it's “cara”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “café” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list