manhãvsmarinhaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#428
“manhã” frequency rank
#3,156
“marinha” frequency rank
3584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manhã marinha
Definition período do dia entre o nascer-do-sol e o meio-dia costa, ribeira, praia, território próximo ao mar e por ele influenciado, litoral

Where the eye mixes manhã and marinha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. manhã runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against marinha's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
manhã
7 ch
marinha

Look-alike desk: manhã vs marinha

A purely visual mix-up. manhã (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/) and marinha (/mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manhã is recorded at frequency rank #428, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/. marinha is at rank #3,156, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/.

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 3584, this pair ranks #71,533 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manhã vs marinha

Shared letters: ahmn. Private to "manhã": ã. Private to "marinha": ir.

"manhã" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "marinha" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marinha ← amrinha · mairnha · marihna · marinah · marinhha · marinnha · marniha · marrinha

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manhã" and "marinha" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/ versus /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manhã" or "marinha"?
"manhã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #428 in our Portuguese list, against #3,156 for "marinha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "manhã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marinha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,533 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manhã" and "marinha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs manhã". 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 #71,533 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