sábadovssobradoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sábado is a noun, sobrado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#880
“sábado” frequency rank
#19,848
“sobrado” frequency rank
20728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sábado sobrado
Definition sexto dia da semana pela norma ISO 8601, posterior à sexta-feira e anterior ao domingo; por fundamentação bíblica e etimológica, é considerado o último dia da semana que sobrou

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sábado and sobrado apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
sábado
7 ch
sobrado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sábado is /ˈsa.bɐ.dʊ/ while sobrado is /so.ˈbɾa.du/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sábado is recorded at frequency rank #880, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.bɐ.dʊ/. sobrado is at rank #19,848, tagged as anadj, pronounced /so.ˈbɾa.du/.

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 20728, this pair ranks #49,712 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sábado vs sobrado

Shared letters: abdos. Private to "sábado": á. Private to "sobrado": r.

"sábado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sobrado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sobradoosbrado · sborado · sobardo · sobbrado · sobraddo · sobraod · sobrdao · sobrrado

Frequency comparison

sábado#880
sobrado#19,848

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sábado" and "sobrado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sábado" is a noun and "sobrado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sábado" or "sobrado"?
"sábado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #880 in our Portuguese list, against #19,848 for "sobrado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering sábado vs sobrado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list