alôvsaptWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,874
“alô” frequency rank
#41,338
“apt” frequency rank
46212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alô apt
Definition lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá apto

Letter map: alô vs apt

Shared letters muted; letters that set alô and apt apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. alô (VCV) and apt (VCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
alô
3 ch
apt

Part-of-speech tell for alô / apt

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alô is anadverb and aptanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alô is recorded at frequency rank #4,874, classified as anadv. apt is at rank #41,338, tagged as anadj, pronounced /æpt/.

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 46212, this pair ranks #19,130 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alô vs apt

Shared letters: a. Private to "alô": lô. Private to "apt": pt.

"alô" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "apt" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alô" for "apt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alô" is an adverb and "apt" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "alô" or "apt" show up more?
"alô" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,874 in our Portuguese list, against #41,338 for "apt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "alô" and "apt".

  • Full dictionary entry for "alô" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,130 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alô" and "apt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs apt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #19,130 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