pastarvspautarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,580
“pastar” frequency rank
#28,712
“pautar” frequency rank
77292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pastar pautar
Definition comer a erva de fazer pautas, traçar linhas em uma folha de papel

Where the eye mixes pastar and pautar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pastar
6 ch
pautar

Look-alike desk: pastar vs pautar

A purely visual mix-up. pastar (/pɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 a single letter - s in “pastar” becomes u in “pautar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pastar is recorded at frequency rank #48,580, classified as averb, pronounced /pɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/. 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 77292, this pair ranks #1,920 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pastar vs pautar

Shared letters: aprt. Private to "pastar": s. Private to "pautar": u.

"pastar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pautar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pastarapstar · pasatr · passtar · pastarr · pastra · pasttar · patsar · ppastar
  • pautaraputar · patuar · pauatr · pautarr · pautra · pauttar · ppautar · puatar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pastar" and "pautar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /paw.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pastar" or "pautar"?
"pautar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,712 in our Portuguese list, against #48,580 for "pastar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pastar" 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 #1,920 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pastar" and "pautar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs pasteur". 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 #1,920 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