Which to use
“certos” and “cortês” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,359
- “certos” frequency rank
- #27,024
- “cortês” frequency rank
- 29383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | certos | cortês |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural de certo | que tem cortesia |
Where the eye mixes certos and cortês
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses certos with cortês
A purely visual mix-up. certos (/ˈsɛrtuʃ/) and cortês (/kuɾ.ˈteʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
certos is recorded at frequency rank #2,359, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛrtuʃ/. cortês is at rank #27,024, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kuɾ.ˈteʃ/.
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 29383, this pair ranks #39,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of certos vs cortês
Shared letters: corst. Private to "certos": e. Private to "cortês": ê.
"certos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cortês" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- certos ← ccertos · cerots · cerrtos · certoss · certso · certtos · cetros · cretos
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "certos" for "cortês" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "certos" or "cortês" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "certos" and "cortês" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "certos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cortês" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "certos" and "cortês" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ceres vs cortês". 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 #39,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.