privarvsprovarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,982
“privar” frequency rank
#2,795
“provar” frequency rank
30777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature privar provar
Definition tirar a propriedade de demonstrar com provas; testemunhar

Where the eye mixes privar and provar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
privar
6 ch
provar

Why the eye confuses privar with provar

A purely visual mix-up. privar (/pɾi.ˈvaɾ/) 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 a single letter - i in “privar” becomes o in “provar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

privar is recorded at frequency rank #27,982, classified as averb, pronounced /pɾi.ˈvaɾ/. 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 30777, this pair ranks #37,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of privar vs provar

Shared letters: aprv. Private to "privar": i. Private to "provar": o.

"privar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "provar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • privarpirvar · pprivar · priavr · privarr · privra · privvar · prrivar · prviar
  • provarporvar · pprovar · proavr · provarr · provra · provvar · prrovar · prvoar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "privar" and "provar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɾi.ˈvaɾ/ versus /pɾu.ˈvaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "privar" or "provar" show up more?
"provar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,795 in our Portuguese list, against #27,982 for "privar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "privar" and "provar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "privar" 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 #37,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "privar" and "provar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "picar vs privar". 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 #37,485 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