pegarvsPeterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pegar is a verb, Peter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pegar” is a verb and “Peter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#744
“pegar” frequency rank
#1,940
“Peter” frequency rank
2684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pegar Peter
Definition fazer aderir Pedro

Where the eye mixes pegar and Peter

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

5 ch
pegar
5 ch
Peter

Look-alike desk: pegar vs Peter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pegar is /pɨ.ˈɡaɾ/ while Peter is /piːtə/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pegar is recorded at frequency rank #744, classified as averb, pronounced /pɨ.ˈɡaɾ/. Peter is at rank #1,940, tagged as anoun, pronounced /piːtə/..

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 2684, this pair ranks #72,615 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pegar vs Peter

Shared letters: epr. Private to "pegar": ag. Private to "Peter": t.

"pegar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Peter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pegarepgar · peagr · pegarr · peggar · pegra · pgear · ppegar
  • Peterepter · peetr · peterr · petre · petter · ppeter · pteer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pegar" and "Peter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pegar" is a verb and "Peter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pegar" or "Peter" show up more?
"pegar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #744 in our Portuguese list, against #1,940 for "Peter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pegar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Peter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,615 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pegar" and "Peter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pegar vs piegas". 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 #72,615 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