hackvshalWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hack is a verb, hal is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hack” is a verb and “hal” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,668
“hack” frequency rank
#13,531
“hal” frequency rank
36199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hack hal
Definition (transitivo direto, intransitivo) retalhar^(5, 6), cortar, ferir salão

Letter map: hack vs hal

Shared letters muted; letters that set hack and hal apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
hack
3 ch
hal

Part-of-speech tell for hack / hal

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hack is averb and halanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hack is recorded at frequency rank #22,668, classified as averb. hal is at rank #13,531, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhæːˀl/.

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 36199, this pair ranks #30,677 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hack vs hal

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hack": ck. Private to "hal": l.

"hack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hal" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hackahck · hacck · hackk · hakc · hcak · hhack

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hack" and "hal" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hack" is a verb and "hal" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hack" or "hal"?
"hal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,531 in our Portuguese list, against #22,668 for "hack". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "hack" vs "hal" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,677 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hack" and "hal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hack vs hani". 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 #30,677 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