rasca vs roca, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,878
“rasca” frequency rank: #20,120
“roca” frequency rank: 58998
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	rasca	roca
Definition	de má qualidade	cana ou vara preparada para fiar

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

rasca

4 ch

roca

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rasca is /ˈRaʃ.kɐ/ while roca is /ˈRɔ.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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rasca is recorded at frequency rank #38,878, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈRaʃ.kɐ/. roca is at rank #20,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɔ.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 58998, this pair ranks #8,432 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rasca vs roca

Shared letters: acr. Private to "rasca": s. Private to "roca": o.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

rasca ← arsca · racsa · rasac · rascca · rassca · rrasca · rsaca
roca ← orca · rcoa · roac · rocca · rroca

Frequency comparison

rasca#38,878

roca#20,120

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"roca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,120 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 rasca vs roca

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “rasca”; for a noun, it's “roca”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rasca” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable