cobrarvscobrirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,175
“cobrar” frequency rank
#4,710
“cobrir” frequency rank
9885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cobrar cobrir
Definition pedir ou ordenar o recebimento de algo pôr cobertura em

Letter map: cobrar vs cobrir

Shared letters muted; letters that set cobrar and cobrir apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. cobrar and cobrir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cobrar
6 ch
cobrir

Pair insight - cobrar / cobrir

cobrar and cobrir are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “cobrar” becomes i in “cobrir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cobrar is recorded at frequency rank #5,175, classified as averb, pronounced /ko.ˈbɾaχ/. cobrir is at rank #4,710, tagged as averb.

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 9885, this pair ranks #63,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cobrar vs cobrir

Shared letters: bcor. Private to "cobrar": a. Private to "cobrir": i.

"cobrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cobrir" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cobrar ← cborar · ccobrar · cobarr · cobbrar · cobrarr · cobrra · cobrrar · corbar
  • cobrir ← cborir · ccobrir · cobbrir · cobirr · cobrirr · cobrri · cobrrir · corbir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cobrar" and "cobrir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “cobrar” becomes i in “cobrir”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "cobrar" or "cobrir"?
"cobrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,710 in our Portuguese list, against #5,175 for "cobrar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "cobrar" vs "cobrir" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cobrar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cobrir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cobrar" and "cobrir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coagir vs cobrir". 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 #63,391 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