patovsplatôWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,330
“pato” frequency rank
#45,020
“platô” frequency rank
51350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pato platô
Definition empatado o disco, numa embreagem a disco, causador da transmissão da força do motor até as rodas de tração

Letter map: pato vs platô

Shared letters muted; letters that set pato and platô apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pato runs 4 letters (CVCV) against platô's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pato
5 ch
platô

Role in the sentence - pato and platô

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pato is anadjective and platôanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51350, 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/. platô is at rank #45,020, 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 51350, this pair ranks #13,675 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pato vs platô

Shared letters: apt. Private to "pato": o. Private to "platô": lô.

"pato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "platô" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pato ← apto · paot · patto · ppato · ptao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pato" and "platô" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pato" is an adjective and "platô" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pato" or "platô"?
"pato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,330 in our Portuguese list, against #45,020 for "platô". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pato" and "platô".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pato" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "platô" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,675 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pato" and "platô" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "platô vs Pluto". 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 #13,675 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