cara vs cárie, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#195
“cara” frequency rank: #40,971
“cárie” frequency rank: 41166
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cara	cárie
Definition	em direção a, para, contra	ulceração nos dentes e ossos, que os destrói progressivamente

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

cara

5 ch

cárie

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cara is apreposition and cárieanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cara is recorded at frequency rank #195, classified as aprep. cárie is at rank #40,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ɾji/.

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 41166, this pair ranks #24,811 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cara vs cárie

Shared letters: cr. Private to "cara": a. Private to "cárie": eiá.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

cara ← acra · caar · carra · ccara · craa

Frequency comparison

cara#195

cárie#40,971

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"cara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #195 in our Portuguese list, against #40,971 for "cárie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cara vs cárie

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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