saldarvssalvarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,011
“saldar” frequency rank
#1,865
“salvar” frequency rank
39876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saldar salvar
Definition pagar a totalidade retirar de situação perigosa

Letter map: saldar vs salvar

Shared letters muted; letters that set saldar and salvar apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. saldar and salvar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
saldar
6 ch
salvar

Corpus notes: saldar and salvar

saldar and salvar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - d in “saldar” becomes v in “salvar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saldar is recorded at frequency rank #38,011, classified as averb. salvar is at rank #1,865, tagged as averb, pronounced /saɫ.ˈvaɾ/.

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 39876, this pair ranks #26,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of saldar vs salvar

Shared letters: alrs. Private to "saldar": d. Private to "salvar": v.

"saldar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "salvar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saldar ← asldar · sadlar · saladr · saldarr · salddar · saldra · salldar · sladar
  • salvar ← aslvar · salavr · sallvar · salvarr · salvra · salvvar · savlar · slavar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saldar" for "salvar" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - d in “saldar” becomes v in “salvar”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "saldar" vs "salvar" - which ranks higher?
"salvar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,865 in our Portuguese list, against #38,011 for "saldar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "saldar" and "salvar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saldar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salvar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saldar" and "salvar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saldar vs sondar". 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 #26,310 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