quartelvsquartoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: quartel is a noun, quarto is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“quartel” is a noun and “quarto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,342
“quartel” frequency rank
#589
“quarto” frequency rank
6931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quartel quarto
Definition conjunto de instalações onde se alojam tropas e se guarda o respectivo equipamento refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição quaternária em uma série; o que vem depois do terceiro

Where the eye mixes quartel and quarto

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

7 ch
quartel
6 ch
quarto

Why the eye confuses quartel with quarto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quartel is /kwɐɾ.ˈtɛɫ/ while quarto is /ˈkwaɾ.tu/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quartel is recorded at frequency rank #6,342, classified as anoun, pronounced /kwɐɾ.ˈtɛɫ/. quarto is at rank #589, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkwaɾ.tu/.

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 6931, this pair ranks #67,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quartel vs quarto

Shared letters: aqrtu. Private to "quartel": el. Private to "quarto": o.

"quartel" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "quarto" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quartelqaurtel · qquartel · quaretl · quarrtel · quartell · quartle · quarttel · quatrel
  • quartoqaurto · qquarto · quarot · quarrto · quartto · qurato · uqarto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quartel" and "quarto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quartel" is a noun and "quarto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "quartel" or "quarto" show up more?
"quarto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our Portuguese list, against #6,342 for "quartel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "quartel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quarto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quartel" and "quarto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quartel vs quarter". 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 #67,354 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