Which to use
“ralo” is an adjective and “rodo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,418
- “ralo” frequency rank
- #37,079
- “rodo” frequency rank
- 57497
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ralo | rodo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pouco espesso, pouco denso | roer |
Where the eye mixes ralo and rodo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ralo and rodo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between ralo and rodo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ralo is /ˈRa.lu/ while rodo is /ˈroː.doː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57497, 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/. rodo is at rank #37,079, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈroː.doː/.
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 57497, this pair ranks #9,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ralo vs rodo
Shared letters: or. Private to "ralo": al. Private to "rodo": d.
"ralo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rodo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ralo" and "rodo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ralo" or "rodo"?
What to do next
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 "rodo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ralo" and "rodo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robe vs rodo". 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 #9,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.