viávelvsviveTell them apart

Quick tell: viável is a adjective, vive is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“viável” is an adjective and “vive” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,293
“viável” frequency rank
#1,104
“vive” frequency rank
11397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viável vive
Definition que pode ser percorrido terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo viver

Letter map: viável vs vive

Shared letters muted; letters that set viável and vive apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. viável runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against vive's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
viável
4 ch
vive

Grammar separator: viável vs vive

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: viável is anadjective and viveaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viável is recorded at frequency rank #10,293, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈvja.vɛɫ/. vive is at rank #1,104, tagged as averb.

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 11397, this pair ranks #61,465 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of viável vs vive

Shared letters: eiv. Private to "viável": lá. Private to "vive": -.

"viável" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "vive" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vive ← ivve · viev · vivve · vvie · vvive

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "viável" for "vive" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "viável" is an adjective and "vive" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "viável" or "vive" show up more?
"vive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,104 in our Portuguese list, against #10,293 for "viável". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "viável" and "vive". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "viável" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,465 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viável" and "vive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vivaz vs vive". 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 #61,465 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