persavspousaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: persa is a adjective, pousa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“persa” is an adjective and “pousa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,813
“persa” frequency rank
#29,092
“pousa” frequency rank
36905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature persa pousa
Definition da Pérsia antiga ato de pousar

Where the eye mixes persa and pousa

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

5 ch
persa
5 ch
pousa

Visual trap between persa and pousa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: persa is /ˈpɛɾ.sə/ while pousa is /ˈpo.zɐ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

persa is recorded at frequency rank #7,813, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɛɾ.sə/. pousa is at rank #29,092, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.zɐ/.

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 36905, this pair ranks #29,809 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of persa vs pousa

Shared letters: aps. Private to "persa": er. Private to "pousa": ou.

"persa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pousa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persaeprsa · peras · perrsa · pesra · ppersa
  • pousaopusa · posua · pouas · poussa · ppousa · puosa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "persa" and "pousa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "persa" is an adjective and "pousa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "persa" or "pousa" show up more?
"persa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,813 in our Portuguese list, against #29,092 for "pousa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "persa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pousa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,809 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "persa" and "pousa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pola vs pousa". 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 #29,809 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