Which to use
“til” and “tom” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,136
- “til” frequency rank
- #1,262
- “tom” frequency rank
- 45398
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | til | tom |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sinal diacrítico (~) utilizado para modificar a pronúncia de determinadas letras no português (indicando nasalização) e em alguns outros idiomas ( bretão ...) | qualquer som, no que se refere à sua amplitude, fonte, potência, etc.: |
Where the eye mixes til and tom
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses til with tom
A purely visual mix-up. til (/ˈʧiw/) and tom (/ˈtõ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45398, 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/. tom is at rank #1,262, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtõ/.
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 45398, this pair ranks #20,010 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of til vs tom
Shared letters: t. Private to "til": il. Private to "tom": mo.
"til" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tom" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "til" and "tom" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "til" or "tom" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "til" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,010 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "til" and "tom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tifo vs til". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #20,010 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.