gruavsguiaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,917
“grua” frequency rank
#2,053
“guia” frequency rank
49970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grua guia
Definition aparelho usado para levantar pesos ato ou efeito de guiar

Where the eye mixes grua and guia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. grua (CCVV) and guia (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
grua
4 ch
guia

Look-alike desk: grua vs guia

A purely visual mix-up. grua (/ˈɡɾu.ɐ/) and guia (/ˈɡi.ɐ/) 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 49970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grua is recorded at frequency rank #47,917, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɾu.ɐ/. guia is at rank #2,053, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡi.ɐ/.

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 49970, this pair ranks #15,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grua vs guia

Shared letters: agu. Private to "grua": r. Private to "guia": i.

"grua" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "guia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grua ← ggrua · grrua · gura · rgua
  • guia ← gguia · giua · guai · ugia

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grua" and "guia" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡɾu.ɐ/ versus /ˈɡi.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grua" or "guia"?
"guia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,053 in our Portuguese list, against #47,917 for "grua". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "grua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grua" and "guia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grip vs grua". 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 #15,002 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