race vs rasca, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12,135
“race” frequency rank: #38,878
“rasca” frequency rank: 51013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	race	rasca
Definition	raça	de má qualidade

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set race and rasca apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

race

5 ch

rasca

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: race is /ɹeɪs/ while rasca is /ˈRaʃ.kɐ/. 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 51013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

race is recorded at frequency rank #12,135, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rasca is at rank #38,878, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRaʃ.kɐ/.

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 51013, this pair ranks #13,974 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of race vs rasca

Shared letters: acr. Private to "race": e. Private to "rasca": s.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rasca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

race ← racce · raec · rcae · rrace
rasca ← arsca · racsa · rasac · rascca · rassca · rrasca · rsaca

Frequency comparison

race#12,135

rasca#38,878

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "rasca" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "race" is a noun and "rasca" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "race" or "rasca"?

"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,135 in our Portuguese list, against #38,878 for "rasca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering race vs rasca

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “race”; for an adjective, it's “rasca”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “race” entry
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