pátiovspotroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,990
“pátio” frequency rank
#33,548
“potro” frequency rank
39538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pátio potro
Definition recinto descoberto no interior de uma casa denominação dada ao cavalo do nascimento até a troca dos dentes de leite por volta do quarto ano de idade; animal novo

Where the eye mixes pátio and potro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pátio (CVCVV) and potro (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pátio
5 ch
potro

Look-alike desk: pátio vs potro

A purely visual mix-up. pátio (/ˈpa.tju/) and potro (/ˈpo.tɾu/) 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 39538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pátio is recorded at frequency rank #5,990, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.tju/. potro is at rank #33,548, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.tɾu/.

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 39538, this pair ranks #26,685 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pátio vs potro

Shared letters: opt. Private to "pátio": iá. Private to "potro": r.

"pátio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "potro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • potro ← optro · potor · potrro · pottro · ppotro · ptoro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pátio" for "potro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpa.tju/ versus /ˈpo.tɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pátio" or "potro" show up more?
"pátio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,990 in our Portuguese list, against #33,548 for "potro". 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 "pátio" and "potro" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pátio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,685 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pátio" and "potro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pomo vs potro". 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 #26,685 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