tanto vs tão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#242
“tanto” frequency rank: #119
“tão” frequency rank: 361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tanto	tão
Definition	em tal quantidade ou grau	tanto, com tal intensidade

Where the eye mixes tanto and tão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch

tanto

3 ch

tão

Visual trap between tanto and tão

A purely visual mix-up. tanto (/ˈtɐ̃.tu/) and tão (/ˈtɐ̃w̃/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tanto is recorded at frequency rank #242, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈtɐ̃.tu/. 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 361, this pair ranks #75,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tanto vs tão

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tanto": an. Private to "tão": ã.

"tanto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

tanto ← atnto · tannto · tanot · tantto · tatno · tnato · ttanto

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They are said differently (/ˈtɐ̃.tu/ versus /ˈtɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

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

"tão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #119 in our Portuguese list, against #242 for "tanto". 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 "tanto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tanto" and "tão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tão vs tufo". 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 #75,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.