cobrevscobrirConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#3,888
“cobre” frequency rank
#4,710
“cobrir” frequency rank
8598
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cobre cobrir
Definition elemento de símbolo Cu, possui o número atômico 29 e massa atômica relativa de 63,536 u; é um metal avermelhado, encontrado na natureza associado a minérios como a cuprita, malaquita, calcopirita e a bornita; por ser excelente condutor de eletricidade e muito resistente à corrosão, é empregado em condutores elétricos, motores, eletroímãs e encanamentos pôr cobertura em

Letter map: cobre vs cobrir

Shared letters muted; letters that set cobre and cobrir apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. cobre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cobrir's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cobre
6 ch
cobrir

Role in the sentence - cobre and cobrir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cobre is anoun and cobriraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cobre is recorded at frequency rank #3,888, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.bɾi/. 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 8598, this pair ranks #65,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cobre vs cobrir

Shared letters: bcor. Private to "cobre": e. Private to "cobrir": i.

"cobre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cobrir" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cobre ← cbore · ccobre · cobbre · cober · cobrre · corbe · ocbre
  • cobrir ← cborir · ccobrir · cobbrir · cobirr · cobrirr · cobrri · cobrrir · corbir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cobre" for "cobrir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cobre" is a noun and "cobrir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cobre" or "cobrir" show up more?
"cobre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,888 in our Portuguese list, against #4,710 for "cobrir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cobre" 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 #65,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cobre" 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 #65,127 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