incertovsinternoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,264
“incerto” frequency rank
#3,269
“interno” frequency rank
15533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incerto interno
Definition sobre o qual não se tem certeza interior; de dentro

Where the eye mixes incerto and interno

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

7 ch
incerto
7 ch
interno

Look-alike desk: incerto vs interno

A purely visual mix-up. incerto (/ĩ.ˈsɛɾ.tu/) and interno (/ĩ.ˈtɛɾ.nu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incerto is recorded at frequency rank #12,264, classified as anadj, pronounced /ĩ.ˈsɛɾ.tu/. interno is at rank #3,269, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ĩ.ˈtɛɾ.nu/.

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 15533, this pair ranks #56,262 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incerto vs interno

Shared letters: einort. Private to "incerto": c. Private to "interno": -.

"incerto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "interno" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incerto ← icnerto · inccerto · incerot · incerrto · incertto · incetro · increto · inecrto
  • interno ← inetrno · innterno · intenro · internno · interon · interrno · intreno · intterno

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "incerto" and "interno" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ĩ.ˈsɛɾ.tu/ versus /ĩ.ˈtɛɾ.nu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "incerto" or "interno" show up more?
"interno" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,269 in our Portuguese list, against #12,264 for "incerto". 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 "incerto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interno" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,262 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incerto" and "interno" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "internal vs interno". 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 #56,262 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