valevsvelaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“vale” and “vela” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#576
“vale” frequency rank
#5,478
“vela” frequency rank
6054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vale vela
Definition planície entre duas montanhas ou colinas peça de brim ou lona que, presa às vergas de um mastro ou ao próprio mastro da embarcação, impele esta com a ajuda do vento

Where the eye mixes vale and vela

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vale
4 ch
vela

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. vale (/ˈva.lɨ/) and vela (/ˈvɛ.lɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vale is recorded at frequency rank #576, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈva.lɨ/. vela is at rank #5,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɛ.lɐ/.

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 6054, this pair ranks #68,463 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vale vs vela

Shared letters: aelv. Private to "vale": -. Private to "vela": -.

"vale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valeavle · vael · vlae · vvale
  • velaevla · veal · vella · vlea · vvela

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vale" and "vela" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈva.lɨ/ versus /ˈvɛ.lɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vale" or "vela"?
"vale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #576 in our Portuguese list, against #5,478 for "vela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list