pecarvspularWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,725
“pecar” frequency rank
#6,341
“pular” frequency rank
39066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pecar pular
Definition cometer pecado dar pulos

Where the eye mixes pecar and pular

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

5 ch
pecar
5 ch
pular

Why the eye confuses pecar with pular

A purely visual mix-up. pecar (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and pular (/pu.ˈlaɾ/) 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 39066, 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/. pular is at rank #6,341, tagged as averb, pronounced /pu.ˈlaɾ/.

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 39066, this pair ranks #27,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pecar vs pular

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pecar": ce. Private to "pular": lu.

"pecar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pular" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecarepcar · pcear · peacr · pecarr · peccar · ppecar
  • pularpluar · ppular · pualr · pularr · pullar · pulra · uplar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pecar" and "pular" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /pu.ˈlaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pecar" or "pular"?
"pular" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,341 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 "pular" 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 "pular" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pecar" and "pular" 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 #27,275 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