fartarvsfurarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,928
“fartar” frequency rank
#14,378
“furar” frequency rank
63306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fartar furar
Definition saciar a fome ou a sede a abrir furo, buraco ou rombo em; cavar

Where the eye mixes fartar and furar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fartar runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against furar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fartar
5 ch
furar

Why the eye confuses fartar with furar

A purely visual mix-up. fartar (/fɐɾ.ˈtaɾ/) and furar (/fu.ˈɾaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fartar is recorded at frequency rank #48,928, classified as averb, pronounced /fɐɾ.ˈtaɾ/. furar is at rank #14,378, tagged as averb, pronounced /fu.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 63306, this pair ranks #6,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fartar vs furar

Shared letters: afr. Private to "fartar": t. Private to "furar": u.

"fartar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "furar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fartar ← afrtar · faratr · farrtar · fartarr · fartra · farttar · fatrar · ffartar
  • furar ← ffurar · fruar · fuarr · furarr · furra · furrar · ufrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fartar" for "furar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/fɐɾ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /fu.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fartar" vs "furar" - which ranks higher?
"furar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,378 in our Portuguese list, against #48,928 for "fartar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fartar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "furar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,255 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fartar" and "furar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fartar vs furtar". 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 #6,255 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