talavstaleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tala” and “tale” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,251
“tala” frequency rank
#40,352
“tale” frequency rank
76603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tala tale
Definition a moeda de Samoa discurso, fala

Where the eye mixes tala and tale

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tala and tale follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
tala
4 ch
tale

Visual trap between tala and tale

A purely visual mix-up. tala (/ˈta.lɐ/) and tale (/taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “tala” becomes e in “tale”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tala is recorded at frequency rank #36,251, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈta.lɐ/. tale is at rank #40,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə].

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 76603, this pair ranks #2,061 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tala vs tale

Shared letters: alt. Private to "tala": -. Private to "tale": e.

"tala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tala ← taal · talla · tlaa · ttala
  • tale ← atle · tael · talle · tlae · ttale

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tala" and "tale" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈta.lɐ/ versus /taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tala" or "tale" show up more?
"tala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,251 in our Portuguese list, against #40,352 for "tale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "tala" and "tale" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,061 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tala" and "tale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talão vs tale". 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 #2,061 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