tintasvstontasTell them apart

Which to use

“tintas” and “tontas” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,512
“tintas” frequency rank
#17,836
“tontas” frequency rank
39348
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tintas tontas
Definition Forma del femenino plural de tinto. Forma del femenino plural de tonto.

Where the eye mixes tintas and tontas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tintas and tontas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
tintas
6 ch
tontas

Look-alike desk: tintas vs tontas

A purely visual mix-up. tintas ([ˈt̪ĩn̪t̪as]) and tontas ([ˈt̪õn̪t̪as]) 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 a single letter - i in “tintas” becomes o in “tontas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tintas is recorded at frequency rank #21,512, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈt̪ĩn̪t̪as]. tontas is at rank #17,836, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈt̪õn̪t̪as].

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 39348, this pair ranks #165,018 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tintas vs tontas

Shared letters: anst. Private to "tintas": i. Private to "tontas": o.

"tintas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tontas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tintas ← itntas · tinats · tinntas · tintass · tintsa · tinttas · titnas · tnitas
  • tontas ← otntas · tnotas · tonats · tonntas · tontass · tontsa · tonttas · totnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tintas" for "tontas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪ĩn̪t̪as] versus [ˈt̪õn̪t̪as]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tintas" or "tontas"?
"tontas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,836 in our Spanish list, against #21,512 for "tintas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tintas" and "tontas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tintas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tontas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,018 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tintas" and "tontas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tintas vs tintos". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #165,018 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list