Which to use
“til” and “told” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,136
- “til” frequency rank
- #29,938
- “told” frequency rank
- 74074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | til | told |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sinal diacrítico (~) utilizado para modificar a pronúncia de determinadas letras no português (indicando nasalização) e em alguns outros idiomas ( bretão ...) | taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados) |
Where the eye mixes til and told
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses til with told
A purely visual mix-up. til (/ˈʧiw/) and told (/tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]) 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 74074, 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/. 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 74074, this pair ranks #2,621 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of til vs told
Shared letters: lt. Private to "til": i. Private to "told": do.
"til" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- told ← otld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "til" and "told" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "til" or "told" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "til" 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 #2,621 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "til" and "told" 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 #2,621 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.