regervsréguaTell them apart

Quick tell: reger is a verb, régua is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reger” is a verb and “régua” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,457
“reger” frequency rank
#18,702
“régua” frequency rank
57159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reger régua
Definition governar instrumento de madeira, plástico ou qualquer outro material sólido com as faces planas e as arestas apropriadas para servirem de guia para se traçar linhas retas

Where the eye mixes reger and régua

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
reger
5 ch
régua

Visual trap between reger and régua

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reger is /Rɨ.ˈʒeɾ/ while régua is /ˈχɛ.gwə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reger is recorded at frequency rank #38,457, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈʒeɾ/. régua is at rank #18,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈχɛ.gwə/.

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 57159, this pair ranks #9,504 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reger vs régua

Shared letters: gr. Private to "reger": e. Private to "régua": aué.

"reger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "régua" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regererger · reegr · regerr · regger · regre · rgeer · rreger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reger" and "régua" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reger" is a verb and "régua" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "reger" vs "régua" - which ranks higher?
"régua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,702 in our Portuguese list, against #38,457 for "reger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "régua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,504 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reger" and "régua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reger vs reles". 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 #9,504 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