cagarvscapazConfusable pair

Quick tell: cagar is a verb, capaz is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cagar” is a verb and “capaz” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,037
“cagar” frequency rank
#1,041
“capaz” frequency rank
16078
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagar capaz
Definition expelir pelo ânus; defecar que tem o conhecimento ou habilidade para fazer algo

Where the eye mixes cagar and capaz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cagar
5 ch
capaz

Look-alike desk: cagar vs capaz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagar is /kɐ'ɣaɾ/ while capaz is /kɐ.ˈpaʃ/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16078, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagar is recorded at frequency rank #15,037, classified as averb, pronounced /kɐ'ɣaɾ/. capaz is at rank #1,041, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈpaʃ/.

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 16078, this pair ranks #55,557 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cagar vs capaz

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cagar": gr. Private to "capaz": pz.

"cagar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "capaz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cagaracgar · caagr · cagarr · caggar · ccagar · cgaar
  • capazacpaz · caapz · capazz · cappaz · capza · ccapaz · cpaaz

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cagar" for "capaz" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagar" is a verb and "capaz" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cagar" or "capaz" show up more?
"capaz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,041 in our Portuguese list, against #15,037 for "cagar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cagar" and "capaz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capaz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,557 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagar" and "capaz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagar vs coagir". 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 #55,557 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