ralarvsrodarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,206
“ralar” frequency rank
#10,266
“rodar” frequency rank
51472
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ralar rodar
Definition fazer passar pelo ralador; triturar; esmagar; moer fazer andar à roda (transitivo)

Where the eye mixes ralar and rodar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ralar and rodar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ralar
5 ch
rodar

Look-alike desk: ralar vs rodar

A purely visual mix-up. ralar (/Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/) and rodar (/Ru.ˈdaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51472, 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/. rodar is at rank #10,266, tagged as averb, pronounced /Ru.ˈdaɾ/.

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 51472, this pair ranks #13,573 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ralar vs rodar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "ralar": l. Private to "rodar": do.

"ralar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rodar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ralar ← arlar · raalr · ralarr · rallar · ralra · rlaar · rralar
  • rodar ← ordar · rdoar · roadr · rodarr · roddar · rodra · rrodar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ralar" and "rodar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/ versus /Ru.ˈdaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ralar" or "rodar"?
"rodar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,266 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 "rodar" 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 "rodar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,573 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ralar" and "rodar" 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 #13,573 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