àquelavsàqueleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,603
“àquela” frequency rank
#10,461
“àquele” frequency rank
20064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature àquela àquele
Definition contração da preposição a com o pronome demonstrativo aquela contração da preposição a com o pronome demonstrativo aquele

Letter map: àquela vs àquele

Shared letters muted; letters that set àquela and àquele apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. àquela and àquele follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
àquela
6 ch
àquele

Corpus notes: àquela and àquele

àquela and àquele are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “àquela” becomes e in “àquele”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

àquela is recorded at frequency rank #9,603, classified as acontraction. àquele is at rank #10,461, tagged as acontraction.

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 20064, this pair ranks #50,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of àquela vs àquele

Shared letters: elquà. Private to "àquela": a. Private to "àquele": -.

"àquela" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "àquele" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "àquela" for "àquele" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “àquela” becomes e in “àquele”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "àquela" or "àquele" show up more?
"àquela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,603 in our Portuguese list, against #10,461 for "àquele". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "àquela" and "àquele".

  • Full dictionary entry for "àquela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "àquele" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "àquela" and "àquele" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "àquela vs avelã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #50,544 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