tiravstolaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,953
“tira” frequency rank
#28,396
“tola” frequency rank
30349
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tira tola
Definition retalho ou pedaço de pano, papel ou outro material, mais comprido que largo feminino de tolo

Where the eye mixes tira and tola

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

4 ch
tira
4 ch
tola

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tira is /ˈt͡ʃi.ɾɐ/ while tola is /ˈtɔ.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30349, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tira is recorded at frequency rank #1,953, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃi.ɾɐ/. 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 30349, this pair ranks #38,032 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tira vs tola

Shared letters: at. Private to "tira": ir. Private to "tola": lo.

"tira" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tiraitra · tiar · tria · ttira
  • tolaotla · tloa · toal · tolla · ttola

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tira" and "tola" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tira" is a noun and "tola" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tira" or "tola"?
"tira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,953 in our Portuguese list, against #28,396 for "tola". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "tira" and "tola". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,032 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tira" and "tola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tola 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list