perto vs pleito, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“perto” is an adverb and “pleito” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#509
“perto” frequency rank: #10,417
“pleito” frequency rank: 10926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	perto	pleito
Definition	a pouca distância	questão que se debate no tribunal

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set perto and pleito apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

perto

6 ch

pleito

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perto is /ˈpɛh.tʊ/, /ˈpɛr.tʊ/ while pleito is /ˈplɐj.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perto is recorded at frequency rank #509, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈpɛh.tʊ/, /ˈpɛr.tʊ/. pleito is at rank #10,417, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈplɐj.tu/.

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 10926, this pair ranks #62,041 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perto vs pleito

Shared letters: eopt. Private to "perto": r. Private to "pleito": il.

"perto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pleito" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

perto ← eprto · perot · perrto · pertto · pperto
pleito ← lpeito · pelito · pleiot · pleitto · pletio · plieto · plleito · ppleito

Frequency comparison

perto#509

pleito#10,417

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perto" and "pleito" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perto" is an adverb and "pleito" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "perto" or "pleito"?

"perto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #509 in our Portuguese list, against #10,417 for "pleito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering perto vs pleito

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “perto”; for a noun, it's “pleito”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “perto” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable