pararvspautarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#656
“parar” frequency rank
#28,712
“pautar” frequency rank
29368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parar pautar
Definition interromper um movimento ou uma ação fazer pautas, traçar linhas em uma folha de papel

Where the eye mixes parar and pautar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. parar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pautar's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
parar
6 ch
pautar

Visual trap between parar and pautar

A purely visual mix-up. parar (/pɐ.ˈɾaɾ/, /pɐ.ˈɾa/) and pautar (/paw.ˈtaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parar is recorded at frequency rank #656, classified as averb, pronounced /pɐ.ˈɾaɾ/, /pɐ.ˈɾa/. pautar is at rank #28,712, tagged as averb, pronounced /paw.ˈtaɾ/.

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 29368, this pair ranks #39,290 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parar vs pautar

Shared letters: apr. Private to "parar": -. Private to "pautar": tu.

"parar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pautar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parar ← aprar · paarr · pararr · parrar · pparar · praar
  • pautar ← aputar · patuar · pauatr · pautarr · pautra · pauttar · ppautar · puatar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parar" and "pautar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈɾaɾ/, /pɐ.ˈɾa/ versus /paw.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parar" vs "pautar" - which ranks higher?
"parar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #656 in our Portuguese list, against #28,712 for "pautar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "parar" and "pautar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pautar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,290 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parar" and "pautar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs pautar". 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 #39,290 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