·     For non-Spanish speakers / people not from a US background: Do not confuse pinole with atole. They are both maize-based, but pinole is the basic material of ground maize, which can be made into other foods as well, for example, by mixing it with a liquid to make atole, or by kneading it into a dough, to make tamales, etc.

·     Do not confuse ch’aj = “pinole” with the phonetically similar ch’aaj = “droplet”, “incense” – the former has a short -a- while the latter has a long -aa-. However, after the loss of the distinction in vowel length, these two words would have become homonyms.