obrigadavsobrigarTell them apart

Quick tell: obrigada is a intj, obrigar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“obrigada” is an intj and “obrigar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#653
“obrigada” frequency rank
#8,657
“obrigar” frequency rank
9310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obrigada obrigar
Definition expressa agradecimento da parte de uma pessoa de sexo feminino fazer com que alguém faça algo à força; forçar

Letter map: obrigada vs obrigar

Shared letters muted; letters that set obrigada and obrigar apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
obrigada
7 ch
obrigar

Part-of-speech tell for obrigada / obrigar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: obrigada is anintj and obrigaraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obrigada is recorded at frequency rank #653, classified as anintj. obrigar is at rank #8,657, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɔ.bɾi.ˈɡaɾ/.

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 9310, this pair ranks #64,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of obrigada vs obrigar

Shared letters: abgior. Private to "obrigada": d. Private to "obrigar": -.

"obrigada" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "obrigar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • obrigadaborigada · obbrigada · obirgada · obrgiada · obriagda · obrigaad · obrigadda · obrigdaa
  • obrigarborigar · obbrigar · obirgar · obrgiar · obriagr · obrigarr · obriggar · obrigra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "obrigada" and "obrigar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obrigada" is an intj and "obrigar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "obrigada" or "obrigar" show up more?
"obrigada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #653 in our Portuguese list, against #8,657 for "obrigar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "obrigada" and "obrigar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obrigada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "obrigar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obrigada" and "obrigar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obrigado vs obrigar". 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 #64,159 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