Which to use
“until” is a conjunction and “útil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,813
- “until” frequency rank
- #2,549
- “útil” frequency rank
- 31362
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | until | útil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | até o tempo em que | que pode ter ou tem algum uso ou é necessário: |
Where the eye mixes until and útil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses until with útil
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: until is /ənˈtɪl/ while útil is [ˈu.tʃiw]. 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 (conjunction vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
until is recorded at frequency rank #28,813, classified as aconj, pronounced /ənˈtɪl/. útil is at rank #2,549, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈu.tʃiw].
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 31362, this pair ranks #36,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of until vs útil
Shared letters: ilt. Private to "until": nu. Private to "útil": ú.
"until" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "útil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- until ← nutil · unitl · unntil · untill · untli · unttil · utnil
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "until" and "útil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "until" or "útil" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "until" and "útil" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "until" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "útil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "until" and "útil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "unit vs until". 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 #36,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.