pesvspresaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,445
“pes” frequency rank
#3,165
“presa” frequency rank
26610
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pes presa
Definition cão ato de apresar ou de apreender ao inimigo coisas que servem para transportar ou são transportadas

Where the eye mixes pes and presa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pes runs 3 letters (CVC) against presa's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
pes
5 ch
presa

Look-alike desk: pes vs presa

A purely visual mix-up. pes (/ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?)) and presa (/ˈpɾe.zɐ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pes is recorded at frequency rank #23,445, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?). presa is at rank #3,165, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾe.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 26610, this pair ranks #42,516 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pes vs presa

Shared letters: eps. Private to "pes": -. Private to "presa": ar.

"pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "presa" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • presa ← ppresa · preas · prresa · prsea · rpesa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pes" for "presa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈpɾe.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pes" or "presa"?
"presa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,165 in our Portuguese list, against #23,445 for "pes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "presa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,516 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pes" and "presa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pes vs pix". 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 #42,516 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