Which to use
“ralo” is an adjective and “robalo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,418
- “ralo” frequency rank
- #44,098
- “robalo” frequency rank
- 64516
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ralo | robalo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pouco espesso, pouco denso | nome vulgar de alguns peixes teleósteos da família dos Serranídeos muito apreciados |
Where the eye mixes ralo and robalo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ralo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against robalo's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ralo vs robalo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ralo is /ˈRa.lu/ while robalo is /Ru.ˈba.lu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ralo is recorded at frequency rank #20,418, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈRa.lu/. robalo is at rank #44,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Ru.ˈba.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 64516, this pair ranks #5,750 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ralo vs robalo
Shared letters: alor. Private to "ralo": -. Private to "robalo": b.
"ralo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "robalo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ralo" for "robalo" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ralo" or "robalo" show up more?
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 "ralo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "robalo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,750 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ralo" and "robalo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robalo vs romão". 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 #5,750 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.