brigarvsbrincarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,990
“brigar” frequency rank
#2,263
“brincar” frequency rank
9253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brigar brincar
Definition ter brigas divertir-se; jogar

Where the eye mixes brigar and brincar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. brigar runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against brincar's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
brigar
7 ch
brincar

Visual trap between brigar and brincar

A purely visual mix-up. brigar (/bɾi.ˈɡaɾ/) and brincar (/bɾĩ.ˈkaɾ/) 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 9253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brigar is recorded at frequency rank #6,990, classified as averb, pronounced /bɾi.ˈɡaɾ/. brincar is at rank #2,263, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɾĩ.ˈkaɾ/.

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 9253, this pair ranks #64,245 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of brigar vs brincar

Shared letters: abir. Private to "brigar": g. Private to "brincar": cn.

"brigar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "brincar" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brigar ← bbrigar · birgar · brgiar · briagr · brigarr · briggar · brigra · brrigar
  • brincar ← bbrincar · birncar · bricnar · brinacr · brincarr · brinccar · brincra · brinncar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "brigar" and "brincar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bɾi.ˈɡaɾ/ versus /bɾĩ.ˈkaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brigar" or "brincar"?
"brincar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,263 in our Portuguese list, against #6,990 for "brigar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brigar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brincar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,245 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brigar" and "brincar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailar vs brigar". 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 #64,245 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list