Which to use
“está” is a verb and “esto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45
- “está” frequency rank
- #22,970
- “esto” frequency rank
- 23015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | está | esto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | terceira pessoa do verbo estar no presente do indicativo; indica condição temporária | agitação das águas do mar; maré; preamar |
Letter map: está vs esto
Shared letters muted; letters that set está and esto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. está and esto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - está and esto
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: está is averb and estoanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - á in “está” becomes o in “esto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
está is recorded at frequency rank #45, classified as averb. esto is at rank #22,970, 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 23015, this pair ranks #46,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of está vs esto
Shared letters: est. Private to "está": á. Private to "esto": o.
"está" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "esto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- esto ← esot · essto · estto · etso · seto
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "está" and "esto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "está" vs "esto" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "está" and "esto".
- Full dictionary entry for "está" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "esto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "está" and "esto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elio vs esto". 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 #46,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.