tilvstolaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: til is a noun, tola is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“til” is a noun and “tola” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,136
“til” frequency rank
#28,396
“tola” frequency rank
72532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature til tola
Definition sinal diacrítico (~) utilizado para modificar a pronúncia de determinadas letras no português (indicando nasalização) e em alguns outros idiomas ( bretão ...) feminino de tolo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set til and tola apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
til
4 ch
tola

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: til is /ˈʧiw/ while tola is /ˈtɔ.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

til is recorded at frequency rank #44,136, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʧiw/. tola is at rank #28,396, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɔ.lɐ/.

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 72532, this pair ranks #3,024 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of til vs tola

Shared letters: lt. Private to "til": i. Private to "tola": ao.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tolaotla · tloa · toal · tolla · ttola

Frequency comparison

til#44,136
tola#28,396

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "til" and "tola" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "til" is a noun and "tola" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "til" or "tola"?
"tola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,396 in our Portuguese list, against #44,136 for "til". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering til vs tola

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “til”; for an adjective, it's “tola”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “til” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list