Which to use
“tha” is a verb and “tocha” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,931
- “tha” frequency rank
- #10,975
- “tocha” frequency rank
- 49906
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tha | tocha |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | presente do verbo bi (ser, estar); sou/estou, é/está, somos/estamos, são/estão | vela de cera, grande e grossa; brandão. |
Where the eye mixes tha and tocha
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tha runs 3 letters (CCV) against tocha's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between tha and tocha
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tha is /ha/ while tocha is /ˈto.ʃɐ/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tha is recorded at frequency rank #38,931, classified as averb, pronounced /ha/. tocha is at rank #10,975, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈto.ʃɐ/..
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 49906, this pair ranks #15,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tha vs tocha
Shared letters: aht. Private to "tha": -. Private to "tocha": co.
"tha" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "tocha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tocha ← otcha · tcoha · tocah · toccha · tochha · tohca · ttocha
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tha" and "tocha" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tha" or "tocha" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tha" and "tocha" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tocha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tha" and "tocha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tha 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 #15,081 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.