serviço vs servo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#528
“serviço” frequency rank: #10,270
“servo” frequency rank: 10798
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	serviço	servo
Definition	o ato de servir	tomar conta, guardar.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch

serviço

5 ch

servo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: serviço is /sɨɾ.ˈvi.su/ while servo is /ˈser.woː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

serviço is recorded at frequency rank #528, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɨɾ.ˈvi.su/. servo is at rank #10,270, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈser.woː/.

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 10798, this pair ranks #62,217 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of serviço vs servo

Shared letters: eorsv. Private to "serviço": iç. Private to "servo": -.

"serviço" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "servo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

servo ← esrvo · serov · serrvo · servvo · sevro · srevo · sservo

Frequency comparison

serviço#528

servo#10,270

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "serviço" and "servo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "serviço" is a noun and "servo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "serviço" or "servo"?

"serviço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #528 in our Portuguese list, against #10,270 for "servo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering serviço vs servo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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