óbviovsouvirTell them apart

Quick tell: óbvio is a adjective, ouvir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“óbvio” is an adjective and “ouvir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,653
“óbvio” frequency rank
#507
“ouvir” frequency rank
4160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature óbvio ouvir
Definition fácil de entender, intuitivo, lógico, evidente: perceber sons

Letter map: óbvio vs ouvir

Shared letters muted; letters that set óbvio and ouvir apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. óbvio (VCCVV) and ouvir (VVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
óbvio
5 ch
ouvir

Role in the sentence - óbvio and ouvir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: óbvio is anadjective and ouviraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

óbvio is recorded at frequency rank #3,653, classified as anadj. ouvir is at rank #507, tagged as averb.

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 4160, this pair ranks #70,839 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of óbvio vs ouvir

Shared letters: iov. Private to "óbvio": bó. Private to "ouvir": ru.

"óbvio" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "ouvir" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouvir ← ouivr · ouvirr · ouvri · ouvvir · ovuir · uovir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "óbvio" for "ouvir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "óbvio" is an adjective and "ouvir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "óbvio" or "ouvir"?
"ouvir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #507 in our Portuguese list, against #3,653 for "óbvio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "óbvio" vs "ouvir" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "óbvio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,839 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "óbvio" and "ouvir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obeso vs óbvio". 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 #70,839 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