brincar vs brinco, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,263
“brincar” frequency rank: #13,460
“brinco” frequency rank: 15723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	brincar	brinco
Definition	divertir-se; jogar	jogo de crianças, divertimento, folguedo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set brincar and brinco apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

brincar

6 ch

brinco

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brincar is /bɾĩ.ˈkaɾ/ while brinco is /ˈbɾĩj.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brincar is recorded at frequency rank #2,263, classified as averb, pronounced /bɾĩ.ˈkaɾ/. brinco is at rank #13,460, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɾĩj.ku/.

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 15723, this pair ranks #56,027 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brincar vs brinco

Shared letters: bcinr. Private to "brincar": a. Private to "brinco": o.

"brincar" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "brinco" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

brincar ← bbrincar · birncar · bricnar · brinacr · brincarr · brinccar · brincra · brinncar
brinco ← bbrinco · birnco · bricno · brincco · brinnco · brinoc · brnico · brrinco

Frequency comparison

brincar#2,263

brinco#13,460

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brincar" and "brinco" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brincar" is a verb and "brinco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "brincar" or "brinco"?

"brincar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,263 in our Portuguese list, against #13,460 for "brinco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering brincar vs brinco

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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