tovstosaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#164
“to” frequency rank
#47,644
“tosa” frequency rank
47808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature to tosa
Definition marca o verbo seguinte como infinitivo falar, conversar

Where the spellings diverge

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

2 ch
to
4 ch
tosa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: to is aparticle and tosaaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “to” sits inside “tosa”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

to is recorded at frequency rank #164, classified as aparticle. tosa is at rank #47,644, tagged as averb.

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 47808, this pair ranks #17,415 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of to vs tosa

Shared letters: ot. Private to "to": -. Private to "tosa": as.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tosaotsa · toas · tossa · tsoa · ttosa

Frequency comparison

to#164
tosa#47,644

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "to" and "tosa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "to" is a particle and "tosa" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "to" or "tosa"?
"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #164 in our Portuguese list, against #47,644 for "tosa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering to vs tosa

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a particle, it's “to”; for a verb, it's “tosa”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “to” 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