clonarvscontarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“clonar” and “contar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,745
“clonar” frequency rank
#740
“contar” frequency rank
47485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clonar contar
Definition realizar criação de clone enumerar os elementos de uma série

Where the eye mixes clonar and contar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clonar (CCVCVC) and contar (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
clonar
6 ch
contar

Visual trap between clonar and contar

A purely visual mix-up. clonar (/klu.ˈnaɾ/) and contar (/kõ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clonar is recorded at frequency rank #46,745, classified as averb, pronounced /klu.ˈnaɾ/. contar is at rank #740, tagged as averb, pronounced /kõ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 47485, this pair ranks #17,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clonar vs contar

Shared letters: acnor. Private to "clonar": l. Private to "contar": t.

"clonar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "contar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clonar ← cclonar · cllonar · clnoar · cloanr · clonarr · clonnar · clonra · colnar
  • contar ← ccontar · cnotar · conatr · conntar · contarr · conttar · cotnar · ocntar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clonar" and "contar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/klu.ˈnaɾ/ versus /kõ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "clonar" or "contar" show up more?
"contar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #740 in our Portuguese list, against #46,745 for "clonar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clonar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clonar" and "contar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clamar vs clonar". 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 #17,756 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