pregarvsprivarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,748
“pregar” frequency rank
#27,982
“privar” frequency rank
40730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pregar privar
Definition fixar ou segurar com pregos tirar a propriedade de

Letter map: pregar vs privar

Shared letters muted; letters that set pregar and privar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. pregar and privar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pregar
6 ch
privar

Spelling & dictionary notes on pregar vs privar

pregar and privar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pregar is recorded at frequency rank #12,748, classified as averb. privar is at rank #27,982, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɾi.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 40730, this pair ranks #25,328 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pregar vs privar

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pregar": eg. Private to "privar": iv.

"pregar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "privar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pregar ← pergar · ppregar · preagr · pregarr · preggar · pregra · prgear · prregar
  • privar ← pirvar · pprivar · priavr · privarr · privra · privvar · prrivar · prviar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pregar" and "privar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pregar" or "privar" show up more?
"pregar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,748 in our Portuguese list, against #27,982 for "privar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pregar" and "privar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pregar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "privar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,328 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pregar" and "privar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piegas vs pregar". 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 #25,328 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