pintarvspintosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pintar is a verb, pintos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pintar” is a verb and “pintos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,339
“pintar” frequency rank
#39,922
“pintos” frequency rank
46261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pintar pintos
Definition Representar en una superficie una imagen mediante trazos y colores. Forma del plural de pinto.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pintar and pintos apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
pintar
6 ch
pintos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pintar is [pĩn̪ˈt̪aɾ] while pintos is [ˈpĩn̪t̪os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pintar is recorded at frequency rank #6,339, classified as averb, pronounced [pĩn̪ˈt̪aɾ]. pintos is at rank #39,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpĩn̪t̪os].

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 46261, this pair ranks #126,758 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pintar vs pintos

Shared letters: inpt. Private to "pintar": ar. Private to "pintos": os.

"pintar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pintos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pintaripntar · pinatr · pinntar · pintarr · pintra · pinttar · pitnar · pnitar
  • pintosipntos · pinntos · pinots · pintoss · pintso · pinttos · pitnos · pnitos

Frequency comparison

pintar#6,339
pintos#39,922

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pintar" and "pintos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pintar" is a verb and "pintos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pintar" or "pintos"?
"pintar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,339 in our Spanish list, against #39,922 for "pintos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pintar vs pintos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pintar”; for a noun, it's “pintos”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pintar” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list