lenguavslínguasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,560
“lengua” frequency rank
#2,151
“línguas” frequency rank
51711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lengua línguas
Definition língua plural do substantivo língua

Letter map: lengua vs línguas

Shared letters muted; letters that set lengua and línguas apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. lengua runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against línguas's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
lengua
7 ch
línguas

Corpus notes: lengua and línguas

lengua and línguas are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lengua is recorded at frequency rank #49,560, classified as anoun. línguas is at rank #2,151, tagged as anoun.

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 51711, this pair ranks #13,382 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lengua vs línguas

Shared letters: aglnu. Private to "lengua": e. Private to "línguas": sí.

"lengua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "línguas" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lengua ← elngua · legnua · lengau · lenggua · lenngua · lenuga · llengua · lnegua

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lengua" and "línguas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "lengua" or "línguas"?
"línguas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,151 in our Portuguese list, against #49,560 for "lengua". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "lengua" and "línguas". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lengua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "línguas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,382 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lengua" and "línguas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lengua vs lenha". 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 #13,382 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