talavstaloWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,251
“tala” frequency rank
#32,788
“talo” frequency rank
69039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tala talo
Definition a moeda de Samoa caule de planta

Where the eye mixes tala and talo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tala and talo 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
talo

Look-alike desk: tala vs talo

A purely visual mix-up. tala (/ˈta.lɐ/) and talo (/ˈta.lu/) 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 o in “talo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69039, 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/. talo is at rank #32,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈta.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 69039, this pair ranks #4,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tala vs talo

Shared letters: alt. Private to "tala": -. Private to "talo": o.

"tala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "talo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tala ← taal · talla · tlaa · ttala
  • talo ← tallo · taol · tlao · ttalo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tala" for "talo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈta.lɐ/ versus /ˈta.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tala" or "talo"?
"talo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,788 in our Portuguese list, against #36,251 for "tala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "talo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tala" and "talo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tala vs tosa". 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 #4,062 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