Which to use
“castigo” is a noun and “contigo” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,743
- “castigo” frequency rank
- #1,738
- “contigo” frequency rank
- 8481
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | castigo | contigo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pena imposta a quem cometeu delito ou falta | em tua companhia, equivalente a com ti |
Where the eye mixes castigo and contigo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. castigo and contigo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: castigo vs contigo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: castigo is /kɐʃ.ˈti.ɡu/ while contigo is /kõ.ˈt͡ʃi.ɡo̝/. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
castigo is recorded at frequency rank #6,743, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐʃ.ˈti.ɡu/. contigo is at rank #1,738, tagged as apron, pronounced /kõ.ˈt͡ʃi.ɡo̝/.
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 8481, this pair ranks #65,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of castigo vs contigo
Shared letters: cgiot. Private to "castigo": as. Private to "contigo": n.
"castigo" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "contigo" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "castigo" and "contigo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "castigo" or "contigo"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "castigo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contigo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "castigo" and "contigo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cantiga vs castigo". 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 #65,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.