pecarvsposarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,725
“pecar” frequency rank
#25,442
“posar” frequency rank
58167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pecar posar
Definition cometer pecado colocar-se numa determinada posição (para servir de modelo, por exemplo)

Where the eye mixes pecar and posar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pecar and posar 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
posar

Visual trap between pecar and posar

A purely visual mix-up. pecar (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and posar (/pu.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 58167, 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/. posar is at rank #25,442, tagged as averb, pronounced /pu.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 58167, this pair ranks #8,906 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pecar vs posar

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pecar": ce. Private to "posar": os.

"pecar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "posar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecar ← epcar · pcear · peacr · pecarr · peccar · ppecar
  • posar ← opsar · poasr · posarr · posra · possar · pposar · psoar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pecar" and "posar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /pu.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pecar" or "posar"?
"posar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,442 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pecar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,906 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pecar" and "posar" 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 #8,906 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