ralarvsrasparWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,206
“ralar” frequency rank
#24,133
“raspar” frequency rank
65339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ralar raspar
Definition fazer passar pelo ralador; triturar; esmagar; moer desbastar uma superfície

Where the eye mixes ralar and raspar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ralar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against raspar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ralar
6 ch
raspar

Visual trap between ralar and raspar

A purely visual mix-up. ralar (/Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/) and raspar (/Rɐʃ.ˈpaɾ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ralar is recorded at frequency rank #41,206, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/. raspar is at rank #24,133, tagged as averb, pronounced /Rɐʃ.ˈpaɾ/.

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 65339, this pair ranks #5,427 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ralar vs raspar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "ralar": l. Private to "raspar": ps.

"ralar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "raspar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ralar ← arlar · raalr · ralarr · rallar · ralra · rlaar · rralar
  • raspar ← arspar · rapsar · rasapr · rasparr · rasppar · raspra · rasspar · rraspar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ralar" and "raspar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/ versus /Rɐʃ.ˈpaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ralar" or "raspar" show up more?
"raspar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,133 in our Portuguese list, against #41,206 for "ralar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ralar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raspar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,427 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ralar" and "raspar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ralar vs rimar". 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 #5,427 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