fretevsfritoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: frete is a noun, frito is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“frete” is a noun and “frito” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,685
“frete” frequency rank
#14,853
“frito” frequency rank
27538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frete frito
Definition aluguel de embarcação que se frigiu

Where the eye mixes frete and frito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. frete and frito follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
frete
5 ch
frito

Why the eye confuses frete with frito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frete is /ˈfɾɛ.tɨ/ while frito is /ˈfɾi.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frete is recorded at frequency rank #12,685, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾɛ.tɨ/. frito is at rank #14,853, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɾi.tu/.

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 27538, this pair ranks #41,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frete vs frito

Shared letters: frt. Private to "frete": e. Private to "frito": io.

"frete" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "frito" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frete ← ferte · ffrete · freet · frette · frrete · frtee · rfete
  • frito ← ffrito · firto · friot · fritto · frrito · frtio · rfito

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "frete" and "frito" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frete" is a noun and "frito" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "frete" vs "frito" - which ranks higher?
"frete" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,685 in our Portuguese list, against #14,853 for "frito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "frete" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frete" and "frito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "friso vs frito". 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 #41,416 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