agovsatéTell them apart

Which to use

“ago” and “até” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,434
“ago” frequency rank
#55
“até” frequency rank
9489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ago até
Definition há, atrás – adj também, inclusive

Where the eye mixes ago and até

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

3 ch
ago
3 ch
até

Look-alike desk: ago vs até

A purely visual mix-up. ago (/əˈɡəʊ/) and até (/ɐ.ˈtɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ago is recorded at frequency rank #9,434, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈɡəʊ/. até is at rank #55, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɛ/.

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 9489, this pair ranks #63,923 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ago vs até

Shared letters: a. Private to "ago": go. Private to "até": .

"ago" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "até" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ago" and "até" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/əˈɡəʊ/ versus /ɐ.ˈtɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ago" vs "até" - which ranks higher?
"até" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our Portuguese list, against #9,434 for "ago". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "até" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,923 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ago" and "até" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ago". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,923 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