Which to use
“poça” is a noun and “posar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,093
- “poça” frequency rank
- #25,442
- “posar” frequency rank
- 54535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poça | posar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | cavidade pouco profunda onde se acumula água | colocar-se numa determinada posição (para servir de modelo, por exemplo) |
Where the eye mixes poça and posar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses poça with posar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poça is /ˈpo.sɐ/ while posar is /pu.ˈzaɾ/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54535, 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/. posar is at rank #25,442, tagged as averb, pronounced /pu.ˈzaɾ/.
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 54535, this pair ranks #11,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poça vs posar
Shared letters: aop. Private to "poça": ç. Private to "posar": rs.
"poça" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "posar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- posar ← opsar · poasr · posarr · posra · possar · pposar · psoar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poça" for "posar" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "poça" or "posar" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "poça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poça" and "posar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paçoca vs poça". 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 #11,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.