patovspiãoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pato is a adjective, pião is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pato” is an adjective and “pião” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,330
“pato” frequency rank
#35,727
“pião” frequency rank
42057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pato pião
Definition empatado brinquedo que consiste em puxar uma corda enrolada a um objeto afunilado, geralmente de madeira ou plástico e com uma ponta de ferro, colocando-o em rotação no solo, mantendo-se erguido

Letter map: pato vs pião

Shared letters muted; letters that set pato and pião apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
pato
4 ch
pião

Part-of-speech tell for pato / pião

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pato is anadjective and piãoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pato is recorded at frequency rank #6,330, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpa.tʊ/. pião is at rank #35,727, tagged as anoun.

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 42057, this pair ranks #23,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pato vs pião

Shared letters: op. Private to "pato": at. Private to "pião": .

"pato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pião" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patoapto · paot · patto · ppato · ptao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pato" and "pião" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pato" is an adjective and "pião" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pato" vs "pião" - which ranks higher?
"pato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,330 in our Portuguese list, against #35,727 for "pião". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pato" and "pião". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pato" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pião" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pato" and "pião" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pião vs pix". 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 #23,767 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