salavssarnaTell them apart

Which to use

“sala” and “sarna” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#636
“sala” frequency rank
#40,325
“sarna” frequency rank
40961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sala sarna
Definition compartimento principal de uma casa afecção da pele

Where the eye mixes sala and sarna

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sala runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sarna's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
sala
5 ch
sarna

Why the eye confuses sala with sarna

A purely visual mix-up. sala (/"sa.l@/) and sarna (/ˈsaɾ.nɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sala is recorded at frequency rank #636, classified as anoun, pronounced /"sa.l@/. sarna is at rank #40,325, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsaɾ.nɐ/.

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 40961, this pair ranks #25,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sala vs sarna

Shared letters: as. Private to "sala": l. Private to "sarna": nr.

"sala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sarna" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sala ← asla · saal · salla · slaa · ssala
  • sarna ← asrna · saran · sarnna · sarrna · srana · ssarna

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sala" for "sarna" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/"sa.l@/ versus /ˈsaɾ.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sala" or "sarna"?
"sala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #636 in our Portuguese list, against #40,325 for "sarna". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "sala" and "sarna" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sarna" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sala" and "sarna" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saba vs sarna". 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 #25,060 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