ao vs até, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ao” is a contraction and “até” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27
“ao” frequency rank: #55
“até” frequency rank: 82
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ao	até
Definition	contração da preposição a com o artigo definido o	também, inclusive

Where the eye mixes ao and até

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

2 ch

3 ch

até

Visual trap between ao and até

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ao is /aw/ while até is /ɐ.ˈtɛ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ao is recorded at frequency rank #27, classified as acontraction, pronounced /aw/. 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 82, this pair ranks #75,570 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ao vs até

Shared letters: a. Private to "ao": o. Private to "até": té.

"ao" · 2 letters · shape VV · "até" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ao" and "até" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ao" is a contraction and "até" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ao" vs "até" - which ranks higher?

"ao" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27 in our Portuguese list, against #55 for "até". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "ao" 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 #75,570 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ao" and "até" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs até". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,570 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.