pacasvspataWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pacas is a adverb, pata is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pacas” is an adverb and “pata” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,064
“pacas” frequency rank
#15,417
“pata” frequency rank
58481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pacas pata
Definition muito a fêmea do pato

Letter map: pacas vs pata

Shared letters muted; letters that set pacas and pata apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
pacas
4 ch
pata

Part-of-speech tell for pacas / pata

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pacas is anadverb and pataanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pacas is recorded at frequency rank #43,064, classified as anadv. pata is at rank #15,417, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.tɐ/.

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 58481, this pair ranks #8,719 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pacas vs pata

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pacas": cs. Private to "pata": t.

"pacas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pacasapcas · paacs · pacass · paccas · pacsa · pcaas · ppacas
  • pataapta · paat · patta · ppata · ptaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pacas" and "pata" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pacas" is an adverb and "pata" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pacas" or "pata"?
"pata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,417 in our Portuguese list, against #43,064 for "pacas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pacas" and "pata".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pacas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,719 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pacas" and "pata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacas vs pança". 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 #8,719 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