planovsplantãoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#571
“plano” frequency rank
#8,939
“plantão” frequency rank
9510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plano plantão
Definition liso, sem maiores desníveis, nivelado serviço policial, distribuído diariamente a um soldado, dentro da própria caserna, companhia ou bataria

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set plano and plantão apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
plano
7 ch
plantão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plano is /ˈplɐ.nu/ while plantão is /plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plano is recorded at frequency rank #571, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈplɐ.nu/. plantão is at rank #8,939, tagged as anoun, pronounced /plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/.

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 9510, this pair ranks #63,890 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of plano vs plantão

Shared letters: alnop. Private to "plano": -. Private to "plantão": .

"plano" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "plantão" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planolpano · palno · planno · plaon · pllano · plnao · pplano

Frequency comparison

plano#571
plantão#8,939

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plano" and "plantão" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plano" is an adjective and "plantão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plano" or "plantão"?
"plano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #571 in our Portuguese list, against #8,939 for "plantão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering plano vs plantão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list