parovspratoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: paro is a verb, prato is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“paro” is a verb and “prato” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,123
“paro” frequency rank
#3,431
“prato” frequency rank
15554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paro prato
Definition preparar. vasilha, normalmente de louça ou metal, em que se come ou se serve comida

Where the eye mixes paro and prato

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
paro
5 ch
prato

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paro is /ˈpa.roː/. while prato is /ˈpɾa.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paro is recorded at frequency rank #12,123, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpa.roː/.. prato is at rank #3,431, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾa.tu/.

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 15554, this pair ranks #56,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paro vs prato

Shared letters: aopr. Private to "paro": -. Private to "prato": t.

"paro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "prato" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paroapro · paor · parro · pparo · prao
  • pratopprato · praot · pratto · prrato · prtao · rpato

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paro" and "prato" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "paro" is a verb and "prato" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "paro" or "prato"?
"prato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,431 in our Portuguese list, against #12,123 for "paro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "paro" and "prato". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paro" and "prato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "papiro vs paro". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list