agivsalWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: agi is a verb, al is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agi” is a verb and “al” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,311
“agi” frequency rank
#1,002
“al” frequency rank
37313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agi al
Definition agir, proceder ao (contração da preposição a (Espanhol) e do artigo el (Espanhol)).

Where the eye mixes agi and al

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
agi
2 ch
al

Look-alike desk: agi vs al

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agi is /ˈa.ɡi/ while al is /al/. 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 contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agi is recorded at frequency rank #36,311, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈa.ɡi/. al is at rank #1,002, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /al/.

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 37313, this pair ranks #29,334 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agi vs al

Shared letters: a. Private to "agi": gi. Private to "al": l.

"agi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "al" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "agi" and "al" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agi" is a verb and "al" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "agi" or "al" show up more?
"al" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,002 in our Portuguese list, against #36,311 for "agi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "al" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,334 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agi" and "al" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs agi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,334 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