poça vs porta, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#29,093
“poça” frequency rank: #832
“porta” frequency rank: 29925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	poça	porta
Definition	cavidade pouco profunda onde se acumula água	peça de madeira, metal ou vidro usada para fechar o buraco aberto numa construção por onde pessoas passam de um cômodo para outro ou de dentro para fora da construção

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set poça and porta apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

poça

5 ch

porta

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. poça (/ˈpo.sɐ/) and porta (/ˈpɔɾ.tɐ/) 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 29925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poça is recorded at frequency rank #29,093, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.sɐ/. porta is at rank #832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔɾ.tɐ/.

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 29925, this pair ranks #38,585 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poça vs porta

Shared letters: aop. Private to "poça": ç. Private to "porta": rt.

"poça" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

porta ← oprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota

Frequency comparison

poça#29,093

porta#832

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "poça" and "porta" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈpo.sɐ/ versus /ˈpɔɾ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "poça" or "porta"?

"porta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #832 in our Portuguese list, against #29,093 for "poça". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering poça vs porta

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “poça” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable