úvsurTell them apart

Quick tell: ú is a adverb, ur is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ú” is an adverb and “ur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,175
“ú” frequency rank
#33,653
“ur” frequency rank
77828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ú ur
Definition onde aquático, da água

Letter map: ú vs ur

Shared letters muted; letters that set ú and ur apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

1 ch
ú
2 ch
ur

Role in the sentence - ú and ur

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ú is anadverb and uranadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ú is recorded at frequency rank #44,175, classified as anadv. ur is at rank #33,653, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ur/.

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 77828, this pair ranks #1,790 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ú vs ur

Shared letters: none. Private to "ú": ú. Private to "ur": ru.

"ú" · 1 letters · shape V  ·  "ur" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ú" for "ur" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ú" is an adverb and "ur" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ú" or "ur"?
"ur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,653 in our Portuguese list, against #44,175 for "ú". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ú" and "ur".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ú" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,790 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ú" and "ur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs UBS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,790 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