cego vs chegou, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#5,606
“cego” frequency rank: #459
“chegou” frequency rank: 6065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cego	chegou
Definition	que não vê; desprovido de visão	terceira pessoa do pretérito perfeito do indicativo de chegar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cego and chegou apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

cego

6 ch

chegou

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cego is /ˈsɛ.gu/ while chegou is [ʃe.ˈgow] ou [ʃe.ˈgoː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6065, 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/. chegou is at rank #459, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃe.ˈgow] ou [ʃe.ˈgoː].

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 6065, this pair ranks #68,439 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cego vs chegou

Shared letters: cego. Private to "cego": -. Private to "chegou": hu.

"cego" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "chegou" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

cego ← ccego · ceggo · ceog · cgeo · ecgo
chegou ← cchegou · cehgou · cheggou · cheguo · cheogu · chgeou · chhegou · hcegou

Frequency comparison

cego#5,606

chegou#459

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cego" and "chegou" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cego" is an adjective and "chegou" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cego" or "chegou"?

"chegou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #459 in our Portuguese list, against #5,606 for "cego". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cego vs chegou

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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