talevstoméTell them apart

Quick tell: tale is a noun, tomé is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tale” is a noun and “tomé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,352
“tale” frequency rank
#4,602
“tomé” frequency rank
44954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tale tomé
Definition discurso, fala primeira pessoa do singular no pretérito do indicativo do verbo tomar; tomei

Letter map: tale vs tomé

Shared letters muted; letters that set tale and tomé apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
tale
4 ch
tomé

Part-of-speech tell for tale / tomé

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tale is anoun and toméaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44954, 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]. tomé is at rank #4,602, tagged as averb.

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 44954, this pair ranks #20,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tale vs tomé

Shared letters: t. Private to "tale": ael. Private to "tomé": moé.

"tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tomé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taleatle · tael · talle · tlae · ttale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tale" and "tomé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tale" is a noun and "tomé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tale" vs "tomé" - which ranks higher?
"tomé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,602 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

You've compared "tale" and "tomé". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tomé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tale" and "tomé" 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 #20,471 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