cagão vs cara, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#43,313
“cagão” frequency rank: #195
“cara” frequency rank: 43508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cagão	cara
Definition	cagão, que defeca com muita frequência	em direção a, para, contra

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

cagão

4 ch

cara

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cagão is anadjective and caraapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagão is recorded at frequency rank #43,313, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/. 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 43508, this pair ranks #22,112 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cagão vs cara

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cagão": goã. Private to "cara": r.

"cagão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "cara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cara ← acra · caar · carra · ccara · craa

Frequency comparison

cagão#43,313

cara#195

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cagão" and "cara" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagão" is an adjective and "cara" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cagão" or "cara"?

"cara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #195 in our Portuguese list, against #43,313 for "cagão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cagão vs cara

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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