talão vs tão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#44,612
“talão” frequency rank: #119
“tão” frequency rank: 44731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	talão	tão
Definition	bloco de folhas destacáveis	tanto, com tal intensidade

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set talão and tão apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

talão

3 ch

tão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: talão is /tɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ while tão is /ˈtɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talão is recorded at frequency rank #44,612, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. 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 44731, this pair ranks #20,696 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of talão vs tão

Shared letters: otã. Private to "talão": al. Private to "tão": -.

"talão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "tão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

talão#44,612

tão#119

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "talão" and "tão" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "talão" is a noun and "tão" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "talão" or "tão"?

"tão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #119 in our Portuguese list, against #44,612 for "talão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering talão vs tão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “talão”; for an adverb, it's “tão”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “talão” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable