telavstilTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,952
“tela” frequency rank
#44,136
“til” frequency rank
46088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tela til
Definition tecido de lã, linho, seda, etc. sinal diacrítico (~) utilizado para modificar a pronúncia de determinadas letras no português (indicando nasalização) e em alguns outros idiomas ( bretão ...)

Where the eye mixes tela and til

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

4 ch
tela
3 ch
til

Look-alike desk: tela vs til

A purely visual mix-up. tela (/ˈtɛ.lɐ/) and til (/ˈʧiw/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tela is recorded at frequency rank #1,952, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɛ.lɐ/. til is at rank #44,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʧiw/.

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 46088, this pair ranks #19,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tela vs til

Shared letters: lt. Private to "tela": ae. Private to "til": i.

"tela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "til" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • telaetla · teal · tella · tlea · ttela

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tela" for "til" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtɛ.lɐ/ versus /ˈʧiw/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tela" or "til" show up more?
"tela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,952 in our Portuguese list, against #44,136 for "til". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "til" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tela" and "til" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tifo vs til". 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 #19,265 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