ferrarvsfurtarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,270
“ferrar” frequency rank
#31,387
“furtar” frequency rank
42657
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ferrar furtar
Definition pôr ferraduras em subtrair algo alheio sem uso de violência ou ameaça

Where the eye mixes ferrar and furtar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ferrar and furtar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ferrar
6 ch
furtar

Look-alike desk: ferrar vs furtar

A purely visual mix-up. ferrar (/fɨ.ˈRaɾ/) and furtar (/fuɾ.ˈtaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ferrar is recorded at frequency rank #11,270, classified as averb, pronounced /fɨ.ˈRaɾ/. furtar is at rank #31,387, tagged as averb, pronounced /fuɾ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 42657, this pair ranks #23,099 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ferrar vs furtar

Shared letters: afr. Private to "ferrar": e. Private to "furtar": tu.

"ferrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "furtar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ferrar ← efrrar · ferar · ferarr · ferrarr · ferrra · fferrar · frerar
  • furtar ← ffurtar · frutar · furatr · furrtar · furtarr · furtra · furttar · futrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ferrar" and "furtar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fɨ.ˈRaɾ/ versus /fuɾ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ferrar" or "furtar" show up more?
"ferrar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,270 in our Portuguese list, against #31,387 for "furtar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ferrar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "furtar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,099 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ferrar" and "furtar" 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 #23,099 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