tolovstookConfusable pair

Quick tell: tolo is a adjective, took is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tolo” is an adjective and “took” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,929
“tolo” frequency rank
#40,361
“took” frequency rank
58290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tolo took
Definition sem inteligência ou sem juízo pretérito do verbo take

Letter map: tolo vs took

Shared letters muted; letters that set tolo and took apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tolo (CVCV) and took (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
tolo
4 ch
took

Part-of-speech tell for tolo / took

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tolo is anadjective and tookaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tolo is recorded at frequency rank #17,929, classified as anadj. took is at rank #40,361, tagged as averb, pronounced /tʊk/.

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 58290, this pair ranks #8,831 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tolo vs took

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tolo": l. Private to "took": k.

"tolo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "took" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tolo ← otlo · tloo · tollo · ttolo
  • took ← otok · tok · toko · tookk · ttook

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tolo" and "took" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tolo" is an adjective and "took" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tolo" vs "took" - which ranks higher?
"tolo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,929 in our Portuguese list, against #40,361 for "took". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tolo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "took" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,831 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tolo" and "took" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "took 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

Confusion rank #8,831 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