escovavsescrevaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#11,061
“escova” frequency rank
#7,525
“escreva” frequency rank
18586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escova escreva
Definition utensílio guarnecido de pelos, sedas, fibras de plástico, fios de arame, etc. que serve para limpar; pode ser usado em roupas, tecidos, móveis, etc primeira pessoa do singular do presente do conjuntivo do verbo escrever

Letter map: escova vs escreva

Shared letters muted; letters that set escova and escreva apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. escova runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against escreva's 7 (VCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
escova
7 ch
escreva

Part-of-speech tell for escova / escreva

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: escova is anoun and escrevaaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escova is recorded at frequency rank #11,061, classified as anoun, pronounced /iʃ.ˈkɔ.vɐ/. escreva is at rank #7,525, 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 18586, this pair ranks #52,376 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of escova vs escreva

Shared letters: acesv. Private to "escova": o. Private to "escreva": r.

"escova" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "escreva" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escovaecsova · esccova · escoav · escovva · escvoa · esocva · esscova · secova
  • escrevaecsreva · esccreva · escerva · escreav · escrevva · escrreva · escrvea · esrceva

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "escova" and "escreva" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "escova" is a noun and "escreva" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "escova" vs "escreva" - which ranks higher?
"escreva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,525 in our Portuguese list, against #11,061 for "escova". 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 "escova" and "escreva".

  • Full dictionary entry for "escova" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escreva" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,376 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escova" and "escreva" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escoar vs escova". 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 #52,376 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