taçavstãoConfusable pair

Quick tell: taça is a noun, tão is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“taça” is a noun and “tão” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,807
“taça” frequency rank
#119
“tão” frequency rank
3926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taça tão
Definition copo de forma especial, de boca larga e pouco fundo, pode ter algo de pé tanto, com tal intensidade

Letter map: taça vs tão

Shared letters muted; letters that set taça and tão apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
taça
3 ch
tão

Part-of-speech tell for taça / tão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taça is anoun and tãoanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taça is recorded at frequency rank #3,807, classified as anoun. tão is at rank #119, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈtɐ̃w̃/.

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 3926, this pair ranks #71,145 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of taça vs tão

Shared letters: t. Private to "taça": . Private to "tão": .

"taça" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "taça" and "tão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taça" is a noun and "tão" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "taça" or "tão" show up more?
"tão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #119 in our Portuguese list, against #3,807 for "taça". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "taça" and "tão".

  • Full dictionary entry for "taça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,145 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taça" and "tão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "taça vs tosa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #71,145 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