rápidovsratioWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#811
“rápido” frequency rank
#46,527
“ratio” frequency rank
47338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rápido ratio
Definition que anda depressa quociente, proporção, razão

Where the eye mixes rápido and ratio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rápido runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against ratio's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rápido
5 ch
ratio

Look-alike desk: rápido vs ratio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rápido is /ˈRa.pi.du/ while ratio is /ɻeɪ.ʃi.oʊ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rápido is recorded at frequency rank #811, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈRa.pi.du/. ratio is at rank #46,527, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɻeɪ.ʃi.oʊ/.

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 47338, this pair ranks #17,922 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rápido vs ratio

Shared letters: ior. Private to "rápido": dpá. Private to "ratio": at.

"rápido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "ratio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ratio ← artio · raito · ratoi · rattio · rratio · rtaio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rápido" for "ratio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rápido" is an adjective and "ratio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rápido" vs "ratio" - which ranks higher?
"rápido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #811 in our Portuguese list, against #46,527 for "ratio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rápido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ratio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,922 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rápido" and "ratio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs ratio". 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 #17,922 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