sofrervssoprarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,652
“sofrer” frequency rank
#28,787
“soprar” frequency rank
31439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sofrer soprar
Definition passar por determinado estado ou ação produzir sopro; bafejar

Where the eye mixes sofrer and soprar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sofrer
6 ch
soprar

Why the eye confuses sofrer with soprar

A purely visual mix-up. sofrer (/su.ˈfɾeɾ/) and soprar (/su.ˈpɾaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sofrer is recorded at frequency rank #2,652, classified as averb, pronounced /su.ˈfɾeɾ/. soprar is at rank #28,787, tagged as averb, pronounced /su.ˈpɾaɾ/.

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 31439, this pair ranks #36,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sofrer vs soprar

Shared letters: ors. Private to "sofrer": ef. Private to "soprar": ap.

"sofrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "soprar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sofrerosfrer · sforer · soferr · soffrer · sofrerr · sofrre · sofrrer · sorfer
  • soprarosprar · soparr · sopprar · soprarr · soprra · soprrar · sorpar · sporar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sofrer" for "soprar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/su.ˈfɾeɾ/ versus /su.ˈpɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sofrer" vs "soprar" - which ranks higher?
"sofrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,652 in our Portuguese list, against #28,787 for "soprar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sofrer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soprar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sofrer" and "soprar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sondar vs soprar". 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 #36,638 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