pernavspuertaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,098
“perna” frequency rank
#39,817
“puerta” frequency rank
42915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perna puerta
Definition um dos membros posteriores humanos porta

Where the eye mixes perna and puerta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. perna runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against puerta's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
perna
6 ch
puerta

Look-alike desk: perna vs puerta

A purely visual mix-up. perna (/ˈpɛrnɜ/) and puerta (/ˈpweɾ.ta/) 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 42915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perna is recorded at frequency rank #3,098, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛrnɜ/. puerta is at rank #39,817, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpweɾ.ta/.

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 42915, this pair ranks #22,787 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perna vs puerta

Shared letters: aepr. Private to "perna": n. Private to "puerta": tu.

"perna" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "puerta" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perna ← eprna · penra · peran · pernna · perrna · pperna · prena
  • puerta ← peurta · ppuerta · puerat · puerrta · puertta · puetra · pureta · uperta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perna" and "puerta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛrnɜ/ versus /ˈpweɾ.ta/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "perna" or "puerta" show up more?
"perna" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,098 in our Portuguese list, against #39,817 for "puerta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "perna" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puerta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,787 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perna" and "puerta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pera vs puerta". 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 #22,787 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