capavscaroConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,840
“capa” frequency rank
#2,178
“caro” frequency rank
4018
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capa caro
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo de capar cujo preço é elevado

Letter map: capa vs caro

Shared letters muted; letters that set capa and caro apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
capa
4 ch
caro

Part-of-speech tell for capa / caro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: capa is averb and caroanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capa is recorded at frequency rank #1,840, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈka.pɐ/. caro is at rank #2,178, tagged as anadj.

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 4018, this pair ranks #71,012 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capa vs caro

Shared letters: ac. Private to "capa": p. Private to "caro": or.

"capa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "caro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capaacpa · caap · cappa · ccapa · cpaa
  • caroacro · caor · ccaro · crao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capa" for "caro" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capa" is a verb and "caro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "capa" or "caro" show up more?
"capa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,840 in our Portuguese list, against #2,178 for "caro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "capa" and "caro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "capa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,012 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capa" and "caro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caro vs ciao". 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 #71,012 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