fichavsfintaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#3,988
“ficha” frequency rank
#48,933
“finta” frequency rank
52921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ficha finta
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo fichar drible, movimento que engana o oponente

Where the eye mixes ficha and finta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ficha and finta follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ficha
5 ch
finta

Visual trap between ficha and finta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ficha is /ˈfi.ʃɐ/ while finta is /ˈfĩ.tɐ/. 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 52921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ficha is recorded at frequency rank #3,988, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfi.ʃɐ/. finta is at rank #48,933, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfĩ.tɐ/.

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 52921, this pair ranks #12,395 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ficha vs finta

Shared letters: afi. Private to "ficha": ch. Private to "finta": nt.

"ficha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "finta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ficha ← fciha · fficha · ficah · ficcha · fichha · fihca · ifcha
  • finta ← ffinta · finat · finnta · fintta · fitna · fnita · ifnta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ficha" and "finta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ficha" is a verb and "finta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ficha" vs "finta" - which ranks higher?
"ficha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,988 in our Portuguese list, against #48,933 for "finta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ficha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,395 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ficha" and "finta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "findo vs finta". 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 #12,395 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