caravscovaConfusable pair

Quick tell: cara is a preposition, cova is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#195
“cara” frequency rank
#10,164
“cova” frequency rank
10359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cara cova
Definition em direção a, para, contra abertura na terra

Letter map: cara vs cova

Shared letters muted; letters that set cara and cova apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cara
4 ch
cova

Part-of-speech tell for cara / cova

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cara is apreposition and covaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cara is recorded at frequency rank #195, classified as aprep. cova is at rank #10,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.vɐ/.

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 10359, this pair ranks #62,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cara vs cova

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cara": r. Private to "cova": ov.

"cara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cova" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caraacra · caar · carra · ccara · craa
  • covaccova · coav · covva · cvoa · ocva

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cara" and "cova" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cara" is a preposition and "cova" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cara" or "cova"?
"cara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #195 in our Portuguese list, against #10,164 for "cova". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cara" and "cova".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cova" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cara" and "cova" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs cova". 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 #62,774 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