realvsrepWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#454
“real” frequency rank
#28,006
“rep” frequency rank
28460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature real rep
Definition que de fato existe, isto é, não é imaginário gênero musical caracterizado por improvisação rimada, com ritmo sincopado e monólogo ou diálogo

Letter map: real vs rep

Shared letters muted; letters that set real and rep apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
real
3 ch
rep

Grammar separator: real vs rep

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: real is anadjective and repanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

real is recorded at frequency rank #454, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈRjaɫ/. rep is at rank #28,006, tagged as anoun.

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 28460, this pair ranks #40,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of real vs rep

Shared letters: er. Private to "real": al. Private to "rep": p.

"real" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "rep" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • realeral · rael · reall · rela · rreal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "real" for "rep" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "real" is an adjective and "rep" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "real" or "rep"?
"real" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #454 in our Portuguese list, against #28,006 for "rep". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "real" vs "rep" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "real" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rep" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "real" and "rep" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rapa vs rep". 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 #40,346 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