SofavssoltaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,680
“Sofa” frequency rank
#4,270
“solta” frequency rank
46950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sofa solta
Definition sofá ato ou efeito de soltar

Where the eye mixes Sofa and solta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Sofa
5 ch
solta

Visual trap between Sofa and solta

A purely visual mix-up. Sofa (/ˈzoːfa/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and solta (/ˈsoɫ.tɐ/) 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 46950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sofa is recorded at frequency rank #42,680, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈzoːfa/ ouvir^(fonte ?). solta is at rank #4,270, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsoɫ.tɐ/.

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 46950, this pair ranks #18,358 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sofa vs solta

Shared letters: aos. Private to "Sofa": f. Private to "solta": lt.

"Sofa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "solta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sofaosfa · sfoa · soaf · soffa · ssofa
  • soltaoslta · slota · solat · sollta · soltta · sotla · ssolta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sofa" for "solta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈzoːfa/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈsoɫ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Sofa" or "solta" show up more?
"solta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,270 in our Portuguese list, against #42,680 for "Sofa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sofa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "solta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,358 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sofa" and "solta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs Sofa". 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 #18,358 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