traçarvstrocaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,976
“traçar” frequency rank
#1,264
“troca” frequency rank
13240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature traçar troca
Definition representar por meio de traços o ato de trocar; substituir uma coisa por outra

Where the eye mixes traçar and troca

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

6 ch
traçar
5 ch
troca

Look-alike desk: traçar vs troca

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: traçar is /tɾɐ.ˈsaɾ/ while troca is /ˈtɾɔ.kɐ/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

traçar is recorded at frequency rank #11,976, classified as averb, pronounced /tɾɐ.ˈsaɾ/. troca is at rank #1,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɾɔ.kɐ/.

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 13240, this pair ranks #59,180 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of traçar vs troca

Shared letters: art. Private to "traçar": ç. Private to "troca": co.

"traçar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "troca" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • trocartoca · torca · trcoa · troac · trocca · trroca · ttroca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "traçar" for "troca" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "traçar" is a verb and "troca" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "traçar" or "troca" show up more?
"troca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,264 in our Portuguese list, against #11,976 for "traçar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "traçar" and "troca" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "traçar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "troca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,180 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "traçar" and "troca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "traçar vs travão". 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 #59,180 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