construídovsconstruirTell them apart

Quick tell: construído is a adjective, construir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“construído” is an adjective and “construir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,545
“construído” frequency rank
#1,602
“construir” frequency rank
5147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature construído construir
Definition que está junto a diferentes elementos para formar um todo; edificado juntar diferentes elementos para formar um todo, edificar

Letter map: construído vs construir

Shared letters muted; letters that set construído and construir apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. construído runs 10 letters (CVCCCCVVCV) against construir's 9 (CVCCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
construído
9 ch
construir

Grammar separator: construído vs construir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: construído is anadjective and construiraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

construído is recorded at frequency rank #3,545, classified as anadj. construir is at rank #1,602, tagged as averb, pronounced /kõʃ.tɾu.ˈiɾ/.

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 5147, this pair ranks #69,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of construído vs construir

Shared letters: cnorstu. Private to "construído": dí. Private to "construir": i.

"construído" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCCVVCV  ·  "construir" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • construir ← cconstruir · cnostruir · connstruir · consrtuir · consstruir · constriur · constrruir · construirr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "construído" for "construir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "construído" is an adjective and "construir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "construído" or "construir"?
"construir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,602 in our Portuguese list, against #3,545 for "construído". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "construído" vs "construir" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "construído" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "construir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "construído" and "construir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "construir vs contrair". 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 #69,544 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