ajudavsaludeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#360
“ajuda” frequency rank
#37,180
“alude” frequency rank
37540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ajuda alude
Definition ato ou efeito de ajudar o mesmo que avalancha

Where the eye mixes ajuda and alude

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ajuda and alude follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ajuda
5 ch
alude

Look-alike desk: ajuda vs alude

A purely visual mix-up. ajuda (/a.ˈʒu.dɐ/) and alude (/ɐ.ˈlu.dɨ/) 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 37540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ajuda is recorded at frequency rank #360, classified as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈʒu.dɐ/. alude is at rank #37,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈlu.dɨ/.

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 37540, this pair ranks #29,057 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ajuda vs alude

Shared letters: adu. Private to "ajuda": j. Private to "alude": el.

"ajuda" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "alude" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ajuda ← ajdua · ajjuda · ajuad · ajudda · aujda · jauda
  • alude ← aldue · allude · aludde · alued · aulde · laude

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ajuda" and "alude" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/a.ˈʒu.dɐ/ versus /ɐ.ˈlu.dɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ajuda" or "alude" show up more?
"ajuda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #360 in our Portuguese list, against #37,180 for "alude". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ajuda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,057 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ajuda" and "alude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alce vs alude". 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 #29,057 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