Which to use
“told” is a noun and “tolo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,938
- “told” frequency rank
- #17,929
- “tolo” frequency rank
- 47867
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | tolo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | taxa; tarifa (imposto cobrado sobre bens importados ou, em casos mais raros, exportados) | sem inteligência ou sem juízo |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set told and tolo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
told and tolo form a confusable pair in the Portuguese index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - d in “told” becomes o in “tolo” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #29,938, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɔl/, [tˢʌlˀ], [ˈtʌlˀ]. tolo is at rank #17,929, 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 47867, this pair ranks #17,337 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "told" and "tolo" be used interchangeably?
Remembering told vs tolo
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “told”; for an adjective, it's “tolo”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “told” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable