golvsgulaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,746
“gol” frequency rank
#35,619
“gula” frequency rank
37365
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gol gula
Definition pontuação em certos tipos de jogos como o futebol e andebol desejo excessivo de comer

Where the eye mixes gol and gula

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gol runs 3 letters (CVC) against gula's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gol
4 ch
gula

Visual trap between gol and gula

A purely visual mix-up. gol (/ˈgow/) and gula (/ˈɡu.lɐ/) 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 37365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gol is recorded at frequency rank #1,746, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow/. gula is at rank #35,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡu.lɐ/.

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 37365, this pair ranks #29,260 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gol vs gula

Shared letters: gl. Private to "gol": o. Private to "gula": au.

"gol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "gula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gula ← ggula · glua · gual · gulla · ugla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gol" for "gula" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈgow/ versus /ˈɡu.lɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gol" or "gula"?
"gol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,746 in our Portuguese list, against #35,619 for "gula". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,260 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gol" and "gula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grua vs gula". 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 #29,260 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