passadavspássaroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,340
“passada” frequency rank
#8,378
“pássaro” frequency rank
9718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passada pássaro
Definition ato de dar um passo ave voadora de pequeno porte

Where the eye mixes passada and pássaro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
passada
7 ch
pássaro

Why the eye confuses passada with pássaro

A purely visual mix-up. passada (/pɐ.ˈsa.dɐ/) and pássaro (/ˈpa.sɐ.ɾu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passada is recorded at frequency rank #1,340, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈsa.dɐ/. pássaro is at rank #8,378, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.sɐ.ɾu/.

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 9718, this pair ranks #63,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passada vs pássaro

Shared letters: aps. Private to "passada": d. Private to "pássaro": orá.

"passada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "pássaro" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passadaapssada · pasada · pasasda · passaad · passadda · passdaa · ppassada · psasada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "passada" and "pássaro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈsa.dɐ/ versus /ˈpa.sɐ.ɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "passada" vs "pássaro" - which ranks higher?
"passada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,340 in our Portuguese list, against #8,378 for "pássaro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "passada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pássaro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passada" and "pássaro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pássaro vs pastar". 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 #63,622 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