marinhavsminhaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,156
“marinha” frequency rank
#65
“minha” frequency rank
3221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marinha minha
Definition costa, ribeira, praia, território próximo ao mar e por ele influenciado, litoral mulher, esposa do próprio

Where the eye mixes marinha and minha

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

7 ch
marinha
5 ch
minha

Visual trap between marinha and minha

A purely visual mix-up. marinha (/mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/) and minha (/ˈmi.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 3221, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marinha is recorded at frequency rank #3,156, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/. minha is at rank #65, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmi.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 3221, this pair ranks #71,958 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marinha vs minha

Shared letters: ahimn. Private to "marinha": r. Private to "minha": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marinha ← amrinha · mairnha · marihna · marinah · marinhha · marinnha · marniha · marrinha
  • minha ← imnha · mihna · minah · minhha · minnha · mminha · mniha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marinha" for "minha" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲɐ/ versus /ˈmi.ɲɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "marinha" vs "minha" - which ranks higher?
"minha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #65 in our Portuguese list, against #3,156 for "marinha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "marinha" and "minha" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marinha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,958 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marinha" and "minha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minha vs mirra". 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 #71,958 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