salmãovssaltarTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#15,681
“salmão” frequency rank
#10,609
“saltar” frequency rank
26290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salmão saltar
Definition peixe da família dos Salmodídeos amarelo-alaranjado transpor através de salto

Where the eye mixes salmão and saltar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. salmão (CVCCVV) and saltar (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
salmão
6 ch
saltar

Why the eye confuses salmão with saltar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: salmão is /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/ while saltar is /sawˈta(ʁ)/, [saʊ̯ˈta(h)]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salmão is recorded at frequency rank #15,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/. saltar is at rank #10,609, tagged as averb, pronounced /sawˈta(ʁ)/, [saʊ̯ˈta(h)].

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 26290, this pair ranks #42,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salmão vs saltar

Shared letters: als. Private to "salmão": moã. Private to "saltar": rt.

"salmão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "saltar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saltar ← asltar · salatr · salltar · saltarr · saltra · salttar · satlar · slatar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "salmão" and "saltar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "salmão" is a noun and "saltar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "salmão" or "saltar"?
"saltar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,609 in our Portuguese list, against #15,681 for "salmão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salmão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saltar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salmão" and "saltar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saldar vs salmão". 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 #42,894 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