tomouvstoolTell them apart

Quick tell: tomou is a verb, tool is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tomou” is a verb and “tool” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,120
“tomou” frequency rank
#29,542
“tool” frequency rank
31662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomou tool
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo tomar ferramenta

Where the eye mixes tomou and tool

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tomou
4 ch
tool

Visual trap between tomou and tool

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tomou is /to.ˈmow/, /to.ˈmo/ while tool is /tu:l/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomou is recorded at frequency rank #2,120, classified as averb, pronounced /to.ˈmow/, /to.ˈmo/. tool is at rank #29,542, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tu:l/.

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 31662, this pair ranks #36,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tomou vs tool

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tomou": mu. Private to "tool": l.

"tomou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "tool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomouotmou · tmoou · tommou · tomuo · toomu · ttomou
  • toolotol · tol · tooll · ttool

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomou" for "tool" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tomou" is a verb and "tool" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tomou" or "tool" show up more?
"tomou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,120 in our Portuguese list, against #29,542 for "tool". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "tomou" and "tool" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tool" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomou" and "tool" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tool 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 #36,356 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