acolávsargolaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: acolá is a adverb, argola is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acolá” is an adverb and “argola” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,567
“acolá” frequency rank
#36,327
“argola” frequency rank
65894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acolá argola
Definition em lugar afastado ( de quem fala e da pessoa com quem se fala) anel (de metal, madeira, plástico, etc.) para prender, puxar ou suspender algo

Where the eye mixes acolá and argola

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. acolá runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against argola's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
acolá
6 ch
argola

Visual trap between acolá and argola

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acolá is /ɐ.ku.ˈla/ while argola is /aʁˈɡɔ.lɐ/ [aɦˈɡɔ.lɐ]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acolá is recorded at frequency rank #29,567, classified as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.ku.ˈla/. argola is at rank #36,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aʁˈɡɔ.lɐ/ [aɦˈɡɔ.lɐ].

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 65894, this pair ranks #5,194 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of acolá vs argola

Shared letters: alo. Private to "acolá": cá. Private to "argola": gr.

"acolá" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "argola" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • argola ← agrola · arggola · argloa · argoal · argolla · arogla · arrgola · ragola

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acolá" for "argola" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acolá" is an adverb and "argola" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acolá" or "argola"?
"acolá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,567 in our Portuguese list, against #36,327 for "argola". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acolá" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "argola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,194 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acolá" and "argola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ampola vs argola". 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 #5,194 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