perguntavspermutaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#657
“pergunta” frequency rank
#25,429
“permuta” frequency rank
26086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pergunta permuta
Definition frase cujo objetivo é convidar um ouvinte ou leitor a dar uma explicação, uma informação, ou, em qualquer caso, uma interrogação que demanda, chama ou solicita uma resposta o mesmo que permutação

Where the eye mixes pergunta and permuta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
pergunta
7 ch
permuta

Look-alike desk: pergunta vs permuta

A purely visual mix-up. pergunta (/pɨɾ.ˈɡũ.tɐ/) and permuta (/pɨɾ.ˈmu.tɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pergunta is recorded at frequency rank #657, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɨɾ.ˈɡũ.tɐ/. permuta is at rank #25,429, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨɾ.ˈmu.tɐ/.

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 26086, this pair ranks #43,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pergunta vs permuta

Shared letters: aeprtu. Private to "pergunta": gn. Private to "permuta": m.

"pergunta" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "permuta" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perguntaeprgunta · pegrunta · perggunta · pergnuta · pergunat · pergunnta · perguntta · pergutna
  • permutaeprmuta · pemruta · permmuta · permtua · permuat · permutta · perrmuta · perumta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pergunta" for "permuta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɨɾ.ˈɡũ.tɐ/ versus /pɨɾ.ˈmu.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pergunta" or "permuta" show up more?
"pergunta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #657 in our Portuguese list, against #25,429 for "permuta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pergunta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permuta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pergunta" and "permuta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peralta vs permuta". 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 #43,134 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