café vs cata, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#931
“café” frequency rank: #31,681
“cata” frequency rank: 32612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	café	cata
Definition	fruto gerado pelo cafeeiro	busca

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

café

4 ch

cata

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. café (/kɐ.ˈfɛ/) and cata (/ˈka.tɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32612, 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/. cata is at rank #31,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.tɐ/.

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 32612, this pair ranks #35,146 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of café vs cata

Shared letters: ac. Private to "café": fé. Private to "cata": t.

"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cata ← acta · caat · catta · ccata · ctaa

Frequency comparison

café#931

cata#31,681

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "café" and "cata" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈfɛ/ versus /ˈka.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "café" or "cata"?

"café" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #931 in our Portuguese list, against #31,681 for "cata". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering café vs cata

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
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