celebrarvscélebreWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: celebrar is a verb, célebre is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,707
“celebrar” frequency rank
#13,054
“célebre” frequency rank
17761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celebrar célebre
Definition comemorar famoso, conhecido por muitos; afamado, famigerado

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set celebrar and célebre apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
celebrar
7 ch
célebre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: celebrar is /sɨ.lɨ.ˈbɾaɾ/ while célebre is /ˈsɛ.le.bɾi/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celebrar is recorded at frequency rank #4,707, classified as averb, pronounced /sɨ.lɨ.ˈbɾaɾ/. célebre is at rank #13,054, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.le.bɾi/.

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 17761, this pair ranks #53,400 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celebrar vs célebre

Shared letters: bcelr. Private to "celebrar": a. Private to "célebre": é.

"celebrar" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "célebre" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celebrarccelebrar · ceelbrar · celberar · celebarr · celebbrar · celebrarr · celebrra · celebrrar

Frequency comparison

celebrar#4,707
célebre#13,054

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "celebrar" and "célebre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celebrar" is a verb and "célebre" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "celebrar" or "célebre"?
"celebrar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,707 in our Portuguese list, against #13,054 for "célebre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering celebrar vs célebre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list