tratarvstravãoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,728
“tratar” frequency rank
#47,127
“travão” frequency rank
48855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tratar travão
Definition ocupar-se de; dedicar cuidados a; dar tratamento a; ter relações com; discorrer acerca de; ocupar-se de; manusear; alimentar; executar; combinar; obsequiar; estabelecer; pactuar; combinar; cultivar alavanca que detém o movimento de uma máquina

Where the eye mixes tratar and travão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tratar (CCVCVC) and travão (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
tratar
6 ch
travão

Visual trap between tratar and travão

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tratar is /tɾɐ.ˈtaɾ/ while travão is /tɾa.'boŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tratar is recorded at frequency rank #1,728, classified as averb, pronounced /tɾɐ.ˈtaɾ/. travão is at rank #47,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɾa.'boŋ/.

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 48855, this pair ranks #16,277 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tratar vs travão

Shared letters: art. Private to "tratar": -. Private to "travão": ovã.

"tratar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "travão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tratar ← rtatar · tartar · traatr · tratarr · tratra · trattar · trratar · trtaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tratar" for "travão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tratar" is a verb and "travão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tratar" or "travão"?
"tratar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,728 in our Portuguese list, against #47,127 for "travão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "tratar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "travão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,277 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tratar" and "travão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talão 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 #16,277 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