valevsvolWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#576
“vale” frequency rank
#10,986
“vol” frequency rank
11562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vale vol
Definition planície entre duas montanhas ou colinas voo:

Where the eye mixes vale and vol

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

4 ch
vale
3 ch
vol

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. vale (/ˈva.lɨ/) and vol (/vɔl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11562, 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/. vol is at rank #10,986, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vɔl/.

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 11562, this pair ranks #61,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vale vs vol

Shared letters: lv. Private to "vale": ae. Private to "vol": o.

"vale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vol" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valeavle · vael · vlae · vvale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vale" and "vol" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈva.lɨ/ versus /vɔl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vale" or "vol"?
"vale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #576 in our Portuguese list, against #10,986 for "vol". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list