centro vs contre, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#308
“centro” frequency rank: #45,771
“contre” frequency rank: 46079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	centro	contre
Definition	local com maior movimento numa cidade, onde alguma ação se exerce com mais intensidade	contra, encostado em, perto de, próximo a:

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch

centro

6 ch

contre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: centro is /ˈsẽ.tɾu/ while contre is /kɔ̃tʁ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

centro is recorded at frequency rank #308, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsẽ.tɾu/. contre is at rank #45,771, tagged as aprep, pronounced /kɔ̃tʁ/.

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 46079, this pair ranks #19,276 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of centro vs contre

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "centro": -. Private to "contre": -.

"centro" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "contre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

centro ← ccentro · cenntro · cenrto · centor · centrro · centtro · cetnro · cnetro
contre ← ccontre · cnotre · conntre · conrte · contrre · conttre · cotnre · ocntre

Frequency comparison

centro#308

contre#45,771

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "centro" and "contre" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "centro" is a noun and "contre" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "centro" or "contre"?

"centro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #308 in our Portuguese list, against #45,771 for "contre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering centro vs contre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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