desconfiavsdesconfiarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,601
“desconfia” frequency rank
#20,561
“desconfiar” frequency rank
45162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desconfia desconfiar
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo desconfiar duvidar

Letter map: desconfia vs desconfiar

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

9 ch
desconfia
10 ch
desconfiar

Corpus notes: desconfia and desconfiar

desconfia and desconfiar 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 1 extra letter(s) - “desconfia” sits inside “desconfiar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desconfia is recorded at frequency rank #24,601, classified as averb. desconfiar is at rank #20,561, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨʃ.kõ.ˈfjaɾ/.

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 45162, this pair ranks #20,257 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desconfia vs desconfiar

Shared letters: acdefinos. Private to "desconfia": -. Private to "desconfiar": r.

"desconfia" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "desconfiar" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desconfia ← ddesconfia · decsonfia · descconfia · descnofia · descofnia · desconfai · desconffia · desconifa
  • desconfiar ← ddesconfiar · decsonfiar · descconfiar · descnofiar · descofniar · desconfair · desconffiar · desconfiarr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "desconfia" and "desconfiar" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “desconfia” sits inside “desconfiar”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "desconfia" vs "desconfiar" - which ranks higher?
"desconfiar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,561 in our Portuguese list, against #24,601 for "desconfia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "desconfia" and "desconfiar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "desconfia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desconfiar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,257 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desconfia" and "desconfiar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desconfiar vs descontar". 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 #20,257 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