alôvsaloneTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,874
“alô” frequency rank
#11,577
“alone” frequency rank
16451
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alô alone
Definition lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá sozinho

Letter map: alô vs alone

Shared letters muted; letters that set alô and alone apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
alô
5 ch
alone

Role in the sentence - alô and alone

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alô is anadverb and aloneanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alô is recorded at frequency rank #4,874, classified as anadv. alone is at rank #11,577, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈloʊn/.

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 16451, this pair ranks #55,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alô vs alone

Shared letters: al. Private to "alô": ô. Private to "alone": eno.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aloneallone · alnoe · aloen · alonne · aolne · laone

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alô" and "alone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alô" is an adverb and "alone" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alô" or "alone"?
"alô" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,874 in our Portuguese list, against #11,577 for "alone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "alô" vs "alone" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alô" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alô" and "alone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alce vs alone". 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 #55,080 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