pecarvspisarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,725
“pecar” frequency rank
#11,125
“pisar” frequency rank
43850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pecar pisar
Definition cometer pecado colocar os pés sobre

Where the eye mixes pecar and pisar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pecar and pisar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pecar
5 ch
pisar

Why the eye confuses pecar with pisar

A purely visual mix-up. pecar (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and pisar (/pi.ˈzaɾ/) 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 43850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pecar is recorded at frequency rank #32,725, classified as averb, pronounced /pɨ.ˈkaɾ/. pisar is at rank #11,125, tagged as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈzaɾ/.

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 43850, this pair ranks #21,738 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pecar vs pisar

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pecar": ce. Private to "pisar": is.

"pecar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pisar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecar ← epcar · pcear · peacr · pecarr · peccar · ppecar
  • pisar ← ipsar · piasr · pisarr · pisra · pissar · ppisar · psiar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pecar" and "pisar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /pi.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pecar" or "pisar" show up more?
"pisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,125 in our Portuguese list, against #32,725 for "pecar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pecar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,738 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pecar" and "pisar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacas vs pecar". 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 #21,738 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