clorovscobroWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cloro is a noun, cobro is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cloro” is a noun and “cobro” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,802
“cloro” frequency rank
#32,110
“cobro” frequency rank
50912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cloro cobro
Definition elemento químico de símbolo Cl, possui o número atômico 17 e massa atômica relativa 35,453; é encontrado na natureza somente em compostos com outros elementos, como o cloreto de sódio ou o cloreto de potássio; é um gás, na temperatura ambiente, extremamente tóxico; utilizado como germicida padrão para o tratamento de água, na fabricação de papéis, derivados de petróleo, medicamentos, tintas, solvente e plásticos primeira pessoa do singular do presente indicativo do verbo cobrar

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
cloro
5 ch
cobro

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cloro is /ˈkłɔru/ while cobro is /ˈko.bɾu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cloro is recorded at frequency rank #18,802, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkłɔru/. cobro is at rank #32,110, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈko.bɾu/.

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 50912, this pair ranks #14,048 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cloro vs cobro

Shared letters: cor. Private to "cloro": l. Private to "cobro": b.

"cloro" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "cobro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cloroccloro · clloro · clorro · clroo · lcoro
  • cobrocboro · ccobro · cobbro · cobor · cobrro · corbo · ocbro

Frequency comparison

cloro#18,802
cobro#32,110

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cloro" and "cobro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cloro" is a noun and "cobro" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cloro" or "cobro"?
"cloro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,802 in our Portuguese list, against #32,110 for "cobro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cloro vs cobro

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cloro”; for a verb, it's “cobro”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cloro” 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