álamovsalôWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: álamo is a noun, alô is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#42,741
“álamo” frequency rank
#4,874
“alô” frequency rank
47615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature álamo alô
Definition árvore da espécie Populus nigra lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá

Letter map: álamo vs alô

Shared letters muted; letters that set álamo and alô apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. álamo runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against alô's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
álamo
3 ch
alô

Role in the sentence - álamo and alô

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: álamo is anoun and alôanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

álamo is recorded at frequency rank #42,741, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.lɐ.mu/. alô is at rank #4,874, tagged as anadv.

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 47615, this pair ranks #17,615 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of álamo vs alô

Shared letters: al. Private to "álamo": moá. Private to "alô": ô.

"álamo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "alô" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "álamo" and "alô" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "álamo" is a noun and "alô" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "álamo" vs "alô" - which ranks higher?
"alô" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,874 in our Portuguese list, against #42,741 for "álamo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "álamo" and "alô". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "álamo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alô" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,615 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "álamo" and "alô" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alado vs álamo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,615 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