gente vs gentil, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“gente” is a noun and “gentil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#225
“gente” frequency rank: #7,415
“gentil” frequency rank: 7640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	gente	gentil
Definition	pessoas	amável, agradável

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

gente

6 ch

gentil

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gente is /ˈʒẽ.tɨ/ while gentil is /ʒɑ̃.ti/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gente is recorded at frequency rank #225, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʒẽ.tɨ/. gentil is at rank #7,415, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ʒɑ̃.ti/.

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 7640, this pair ranks #66,459 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gente vs gentil

Shared letters: egnt. Private to "gente": -. Private to "gentil": il.

"gente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "gentil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

gente ← egnte · genet · gennte · gentte · getne · ggente · gnete
gentil ← egntil · genitl · genntil · gentill · gentli · genttil · getnil · ggentil

Frequency comparison

gente#225

gentil#7,415

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gente" and "gentil" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gente" is a noun and "gentil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "gente" or "gentil"?

"gente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #225 in our Portuguese list, against #7,415 for "gentil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering gente vs gentil

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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