meninavsmentiraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,015
“menina” frequency rank
#2,243
“mentira” frequency rank
3258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature menina mentira
Definition criança do gênero feminino declaração feita por alguém que acredita ou suspeita que ela seja falsa, na expectativa de que os ouvintes ou leitores possam acreditar nela

Letter map: menina vs mentira

Shared letters muted; letters that set menina and mentira apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
menina
7 ch
mentira

Pair insight - menina / mentira

menina and mentira 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 3258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

menina is recorded at frequency rank #1,015, classified as anoun. mentira is at rank #2,243, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mẽ.ˈti.ɾɐ/.

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 3258, this pair ranks #71,913 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of menina vs mentira

Shared letters: aeimn. Private to "menina": -. Private to "mentira": rt.

"menina" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "mentira" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meninaemnina · meinna · menian · meninna · mennia · mennina · mmenina · mneina
  • mentiraemntira · menitra · menntira · mentiar · mentirra · mentria · menttira · metnira

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "menina" and "mentira" be used interchangeably?
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.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "menina" or "mentira" show up more?
"menina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,015 in our Portuguese list, against #2,243 for "mentira". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "menina" and "mentira". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "menina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mentira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,913 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "menina" and "mentira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mein vs menina". 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 #71,913 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