patavspizaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,417
“pata” frequency rank
#43,087
“piza” frequency rank
58504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pata piza
Definition a fêmea do pato o mesmo que pizza

Where the eye mixes pata and piza

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pata and piza follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
pata
4 ch
piza

Why the eye confuses pata with piza

A purely visual mix-up. pata (/ˈpa.tɐ/) and piza (/ˈpi.zɐ/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pata is recorded at frequency rank #15,417, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.tɐ/. piza is at rank #43,087, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpi.zɐ/.

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 58504, this pair ranks #8,709 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pata vs piza

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pata": t. Private to "piza": iz.

"pata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "piza" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pata ← apta · paat · patta · ppata · ptaa
  • piza ← ipza · piaz · ppiza · pzia

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pata" and "piza" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpa.tɐ/ versus /ˈpi.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pata" or "piza"?
"pata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,417 in our Portuguese list, against #43,087 for "piza". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piza" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,709 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pata" and "piza" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pix vs piza". 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 #8,709 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