cegovschegaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cego is a adjective, chega is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cego” is an adjective and “chega” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,606
“cego” frequency rank
#626
“chega” frequency rank
6232
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cego chega
Definition que não vê; desprovido de visão utilizado como expletivo, transmite a ideia de “até mesmo”

Where the eye mixes cego and chega

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cego runs 4 letters (CVCV) against chega's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cego
5 ch
chega

Look-alike desk: cego vs chega

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cego is /ˈsɛ.gu/ while chega is /ˈʃe.ɡɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cego is recorded at frequency rank #5,606, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.gu/. chega is at rank #626, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈʃe.ɡɐ/.

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 6232, this pair ranks #68,231 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cego vs chega

Shared letters: ceg. Private to "cego": o. Private to "chega": ah.

"cego" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "chega" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cego ← ccego · ceggo · ceog · cgeo · ecgo
  • chega ← cchega · cehga · cheag · chegga · chgea · chhega · hcega

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cego" and "chega" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cego" is an adjective and "chega" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cego" or "chega" show up more?
"chega" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #626 in our Portuguese list, against #5,606 for "cego". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chega" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,231 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cego" and "chega" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cego 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 #68,231 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