alda vs ale, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#30,810
“alda” frequency rank: #17,419
“ale” frequency rank: 48229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	alda	ale
Definition	vaga, onda marinha	reflexo da lua na água

Where the eye mixes alda and ale

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch

alda

3 ch

ale

Visual trap between alda and ale

A purely visual mix-up. alda (/ˈal.da/) and ale (/a.ˈle/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alda is recorded at frequency rank #30,810, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈal.da/. ale is at rank #17,419, tagged as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈle/.

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 48229, this pair ranks #16,972 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alda vs ale

Shared letters: al. Private to "alda": d. Private to "ale": e.

"alda" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ale" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

alda ← adla · alad · aldda · allda · lada

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alda" and "ale" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈal.da/ versus /a.ˈle/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "alda" or "ale"?

"ale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,419 in our Portuguese list, against #30,810 for "alda". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "alda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #16,972 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"alda" and "ale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alda vs audaz". 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 #16,972 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.