contatar vs contato, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#16,977
“contatar” frequency rank: #1,160
“contato” frequency rank: 18137
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	contatar	contato
Definition	ter contato:	o fato de contactar

Letter map: contatar vs contato

Shared letters muted; letters that set contatar and contato apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch

contatar

7 ch

contato

Role in the sentence - contatar and contato

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: contatar is averb and contatoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18137, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contatar is recorded at frequency rank #16,977, classified as averb. contato is at rank #1,160, tagged as anoun.

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 18137, this pair ranks #52,922 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contatar vs contato

Shared letters: acnot. Private to "contatar": r. Private to "contato": -.

"contatar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "contato" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

contatar ← ccontatar · cnotatar · conattar · conntatar · contaatr · contatarr · contatra · contattar
contato ← ccontato · cnotato · conatto · conntato · contaot · contatto · conttao · conttato

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contatar" and "contato" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contatar" is a verb and "contato" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "contatar" or "contato"?

"contato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,160 in our Portuguese list, against #16,977 for "contatar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "contatar" and "contato".

Full dictionary entry for "contatar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "contato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #52,922 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"contatar" and "contato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cantata vs contatar". 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 #52,922 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.