sobradovssobrarWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sobrado is a adjective, sobrar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,848
“sobrado” frequency rank
#19,849
“sobrar” frequency rank
39697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sobrado sobrar
Definition que sobrou subsistir como resto, sobra ou remanescente; existir ou estar ainda disponível; conservar-se, ficar, restar, permanecer

Where the eye mixes sobrado and sobrar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sobrado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against sobrar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
sobrado
6 ch
sobrar

Why the eye confuses sobrado with sobrar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sobrado is /so.ˈbɾa.du/ while sobrar is /su.ˈbɾaɾ/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sobrado is recorded at frequency rank #19,848, classified as anadj, pronounced /so.ˈbɾa.du/. sobrar is at rank #19,849, tagged as averb, pronounced /su.ˈbɾaɾ/.

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 39697, this pair ranks #26,497 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sobrado vs sobrar

Shared letters: abors. Private to "sobrado": d. Private to "sobrar": -.

"sobrado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "sobrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sobrado ← osbrado · sborado · sobardo · sobbrado · sobraddo · sobraod · sobrdao · sobrrado
  • sobrar ← osbrar · sborar · sobarr · sobbrar · sobrarr · sobrra · sobrrar · sorbar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sobrado" for "sobrar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sobrado" is an adjective and "sobrar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sobrado" vs "sobrar" - which ranks higher?
"sobrado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,848 in our Portuguese list, against #19,849 for "sobrar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sobrado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sobrar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,497 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sobrado" and "sobrar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sarado vs sobrado". 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 #26,497 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