utvsútilWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ut is a conjunction, útil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ut” is a conjunction and “útil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,908
“ut” frequency rank
#2,549
“útil” frequency rank
42457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ut útil
Definition como que pode ter ou tem algum uso ou é necessário:

Letter map: ut vs útil

Shared letters muted; letters that set ut and útil apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ut
4 ch
útil

Part-of-speech tell for ut / útil

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ut is aconjunction and útilanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ut is recorded at frequency rank #39,908, classified as aconj. 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 42457, this pair ranks #23,317 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ut vs útil

Shared letters: t. Private to "ut": u. Private to "útil": ilú.

"ut" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "útil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ut" and "útil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ut" is a conjunction and "útil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ut" vs "útil" - which ranks higher?
"útil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,549 in our Portuguese list, against #39,908 for "ut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "ut" vs "útil" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ut" 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 #23,317 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ut" and "útil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs ut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,317 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