Which to use
“talk” is a verb and “told” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,582
- “talk” frequency rank
- #29,938
- “told” frequency rank
- 39520
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | talk | told |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | conversar | taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados) |
Letter map: talk vs told
Shared letters muted; letters that set talk and told apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: talk vs told
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: talk is averb and toldanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39520, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
talk is recorded at frequency rank #9,582, classified as averb. told is at rank #29,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ].
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 39520, this pair ranks #26,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of talk vs told
Shared letters: lt. Private to "talk": ak. Private to "told": do.
"talk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "talk" and "told" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "talk" or "told" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "talk" vs "told" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "talk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "told" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "talk" and "told" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "told 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 #26,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.