penhavsperdaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,960
“penha” frequency rank
#1,548
“perda” frequency rank
9508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature penha perda
Definition rocha, pedra grande na superfície da terra ou do mar ato de perder

Where the eye mixes penha and perda

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

5 ch
penha
5 ch
perda

Look-alike desk: penha vs perda

A purely visual mix-up. penha (/ˈpɐj.ɲɐ/) and perda (/ˈpeɾ.dɐ/) 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 9508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

penha is recorded at frequency rank #7,960, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɐj.ɲɐ/. perda is at rank #1,548, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɾ.dɐ/.

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 9508, this pair ranks #63,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of penha vs perda

Shared letters: aep. Private to "penha": hn. Private to "perda": dr.

"penha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • penhaepnha · pehna · penah · penhha · pennha · pneha · ppenha
  • perdaeprda · perad · perdda · perrda · pperda · preda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "penha" for "perda" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɐj.ɲɐ/ versus /ˈpeɾ.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "penha" or "perda" show up more?
"perda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,548 in our Portuguese list, against #7,960 for "penha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "penha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "penha" and "perda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "penha vs penhor". 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 #63,893 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