an vs até, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,817
“an” frequency rank: #55
“até” frequency rank: 2872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	an	até
Definition	ligado, aceso:	também, inclusive

Where the eye mixes an and até

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

até

Visual trap between an and até

A purely visual mix-up. an (/an/) and até (/ɐ.ˈtɛ/) 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 2872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

an is recorded at frequency rank #2,817, classified as anadv, pronounced /an/. até is at rank #55, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɛ/.

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 2872, this pair ranks #72,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of an vs até

Shared letters: a. Private to "an": n. Private to "até": té.

"an" · 2 letters · shape VC · "até" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "an" for "até" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/an/ versus /ɐ.ˈtɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "an" or "até" show up more?

"até" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our Portuguese list, against #2,817 for "an". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "an" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "até" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #72,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"an" and "até" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs an". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.