raladovsrecadoConfusable pair

Quick tell: ralado is a adjective, recado is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,105
“ralado” frequency rank
#4,673
“recado” frequency rank
33778
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ralado recado
Definition que sofreu a ação de um ralador participação ou aviso (verbal ou escrito, enviado por uma pessoa a outra)

Where the eye mixes ralado and recado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ralado and recado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ralado
6 ch
recado

Why the eye confuses ralado with recado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ralado is /Rɐ.ˈla.du/ while recado is /Rɨ.ˈka.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ralado is recorded at frequency rank #29,105, classified as anadj, pronounced /Rɐ.ˈla.du/. recado is at rank #4,673, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈka.du/.

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 33778, this pair ranks #33,637 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ralado vs recado

Shared letters: ador. Private to "ralado": l. Private to "recado": ce.

"ralado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "recado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ralado ← arlado · raaldo · raladdo · ralaod · raldao · rallado · rlaado · rralado
  • recado ← ercado · rceado · reacdo · recaddo · recaod · reccado · recdao · rrecado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ralado" and "recado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ralado" is an adjective and "recado" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ralado" vs "recado" - which ranks higher?
"recado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,673 in our Portuguese list, against #29,105 for "ralado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ralado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,637 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ralado" and "recado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ralado vs ralar". 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 #33,637 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