Which to use
“tale” is a noun and “tola” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,352
- “tale” frequency rank
- #28,396
- “tola” frequency rank
- 68748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tale | tola |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | discurso, fala | feminino de tolo |
Where the eye mixes tale and tola
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tale and tola follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tale vs tola
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tale is /taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə] while tola is /ˈtɔ.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tale is recorded at frequency rank #40,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /taːlə/, [ˈtˢæːlə]. tola is at rank #28,396, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɔ.lɐ/.
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 68748, this pair ranks #4,184 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tale vs tola
Shared letters: alt. Private to "tale": e. Private to "tola": o.
"tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tale" and "tola" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tale" or "tola" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tale" and "tola" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,184 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tale" and "tola" 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 #4,184 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.