tovstocaConfusable pair

Quick tell: to is a particle, toca is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“to” is a particle and “toca” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#164
“to” frequency rank
#2,545
“toca” frequency rank
2709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature to toca
Definition marca o verbo seguinte como infinitivo buraco, natural ou aberto por alguns animais (roedores, aves, desdentados, etc.), usado como abrigo em árvores, solo, pedras ou outros ambientes (como a casa de troncos do castor)

Letter map: to vs toca

Shared letters muted; letters that set to and toca apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
to
4 ch
toca

Grammar separator: to vs toca

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: to is aparticle and tocaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “to” sits inside “toca”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

to is recorded at frequency rank #164, classified as aparticle. toca is at rank #2,545, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ.kɐ/.

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 2709, this pair ranks #72,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of to vs toca

Shared letters: ot. Private to "to": -. Private to "toca": ac.

"to" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "toca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tocaotca · tcoa · toac · tocca · ttoca

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "to" and "toca" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "to" is a particle and "toca" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "to" vs "toca" - which ranks higher?
"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #164 in our Portuguese list, against #2,545 for "toca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "to" and "toca".

  • Full dictionary entry for "to" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "to" and "toca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toca vs tónica". 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 #72,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list