certovscortaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: certo is a adjective, corta is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“certo” is an adjective and “corta” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#326
“certo” frequency rank
#4,545
“corta” frequency rank
4871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature certo corta
Definition verdadeiro, evidente ato de cortar

Letter map: certo vs corta

Shared letters muted; letters that set certo and corta apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
certo
5 ch
corta

Role in the sentence - certo and corta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: certo is anadjective and cortaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

certo is recorded at frequency rank #326, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛɹ.tʊ/. corta is at rank #4,545, tagged as anoun.

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 4871, this pair ranks #69,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of certo vs corta

Shared letters: cort. Private to "certo": e. Private to "corta": a.

"certo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "corta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • certoccerto · cerot · cerrto · certto · cetro · creto · ecrto
  • cortaccorta · corat · corrta · cortta · cotra · crota · ocrta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "certo" and "corta" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "certo" is an adjective and "corta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "certo" vs "corta" - which ranks higher?
"certo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #326 in our Portuguese list, against #4,545 for "corta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "certo" and "corta". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "certo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "certo" and "corta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerda vs corta". 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 #69,888 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