ralar vs ralo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ralar” is a verb and “ralo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,206
“ralar” frequency rank: #20,418
“ralo” frequency rank: 61624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ralar	ralo
Definition	fazer passar pelo ralador; triturar; esmagar; moer	pouco espesso, pouco denso

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ralar and ralo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

ralar

4 ch

ralo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ralar is /Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/ while ralo is /ˈRa.lu/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ralar is recorded at frequency rank #41,206, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɐ.ˈlaɾ/. ralo is at rank #20,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRa.lu/.

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 61624, this pair ranks #7,043 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ralar vs ralo

Shared letters: alr. Private to "ralar": -. Private to "ralo": o.

"ralar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "ralo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

ralar ← arlar · raalr · ralarr · rallar · ralra · rlaar · rralar
ralo ← arlo · rallo · raol · rlao · rralo

Frequency comparison

ralar#41,206

ralo#20,418

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ralar" and "ralo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ralar" is a verb and "ralo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ralar" or "ralo"?

"ralo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,418 in our Portuguese list, against #41,206 for "ralar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ralar vs ralo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “ralar”; for an adjective, it's “ralo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ralar” entry
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