tocavstugaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,545
“toca” frequency rank
#40,372
“tuga” frequency rank
42917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toca tuga
Definition 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) português

Letter map: toca vs tuga

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

4 ch
toca
4 ch
tuga

Grammar separator: toca vs tuga

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: toca is anoun and tugaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toca is recorded at frequency rank #2,545, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ.kɐ/. tuga is at rank #40,372, tagged as anadj.

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 42917, this pair ranks #22,782 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toca vs tuga

Shared letters: at. Private to "toca": co. Private to "tuga": gu.

"toca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tuga" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tocaotca · tcoa · toac · tocca · ttoca
  • tugatgua · ttuga · tuag · tugga · utga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "toca" for "tuga" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "toca" is a noun and "tuga" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "toca" or "tuga" show up more?
"toca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,545 in our Portuguese list, against #40,372 for "tuga". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "toca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tuga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,782 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toca" and "tuga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tufo vs tuga". 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 #22,782 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