podervspoteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#260
“poder” frequency rank
#10,588
“pote” frequency rank
10848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poder pote
Definition autoridade ou domínio cântaro grande para líquidos

Where the eye mixes poder and pote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
poder
4 ch
pote

Why the eye confuses poder with pote

A purely visual mix-up. poder (/pu.ˈdeɾ/) and pote (/ˈpɔ.tɨ/) 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 10848, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poder is recorded at frequency rank #260, classified as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈdeɾ/. pote is at rank #10,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ.tɨ/.

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 10848, this pair ranks #62,143 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poder vs pote

Shared letters: eop. Private to "poder": dr. Private to "pote": t.

"poder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poderopder · pdoer · podder · poderr · poedr · ppoder
  • poteopte · poet · potte · ppote · ptoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poder" and "pote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pu.ˈdeɾ/ versus /ˈpɔ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "poder" or "pote"?
"poder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #260 in our Portuguese list, against #10,588 for "pote". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,143 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poder" and "pote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pale vs pote". 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 #62,143 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