talavstelhaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,251
“tala” frequency rank
#24,173
“telha” frequency rank
60424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tala telha
Definition a moeda de Samoa peça de barro cozido ou de outro material (pedra, cimento-amianto, metal, vidro, plástico, madeira etc.), usado na cobertura de casas e outros edifícios

Where the eye mixes tala and telha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tala runs 4 letters (CVCV) against telha's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
tala
5 ch
telha

Why the eye confuses tala with telha

A purely visual mix-up. tala (/ˈta.lɐ/) and telha (/ˈtɐj.ʎɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60424, 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/. telha is at rank #24,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɐj.ʎɐ/.

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 60424, this pair ranks #7,667 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tala vs telha

Shared letters: alt. Private to "tala": -. Private to "telha": eh.

"tala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "telha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tala ← taal · talla · tlaa · ttala
  • telha ← etlha · tehla · telah · telhha · tellha · tleha · ttelha

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tala" and "telha" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈta.lɐ/ versus /ˈtɐj.ʎɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tala" or "telha"?
"telha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,173 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.

Useful next steps

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 "telha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,667 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tala" and "telha" 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 #7,667 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