posarvsprovarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,442
“posar” frequency rank
#2,795
“provar” frequency rank
28237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posar provar
Definition colocar-se numa determinada posição (para servir de modelo, por exemplo) demonstrar com provas; testemunhar

Where the eye mixes posar and provar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
posar
6 ch
provar

Visual trap between posar and provar

A purely visual mix-up. posar (/pu.ˈzaɾ/) and provar (/pɾu.ˈvaɾ/) 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 28237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

posar is recorded at frequency rank #25,442, classified as averb, pronounced /pu.ˈzaɾ/. provar is at rank #2,795, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɾu.ˈvaɾ/.

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 28237, this pair ranks #40,594 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of posar vs provar

Shared letters: aopr. Private to "posar": s. Private to "provar": v.

"posar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "provar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • posaropsar · poasr · posarr · posra · possar · pposar · psoar
  • provarporvar · pprovar · proavr · provarr · provra · provvar · prrovar · prvoar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "posar" and "provar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pu.ˈzaɾ/ versus /pɾu.ˈvaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "posar" vs "provar" - which ranks higher?
"provar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,795 in our Portuguese list, against #25,442 for "posar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "posar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,594 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posar" and "provar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs posar". 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 #40,594 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