pingavspintoTell them apart

Quick tell: pinga is a adjective, pinto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pinga” is an adjective and “pinto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,754
“pinga” frequency rank
#2,847
“pinto” frequency rank
27601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pinga pinto
Definition diz-se de pessoa que não tem dinheiro filhote de galinha

Where the eye mixes pinga and pinto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pinga
5 ch
pinto

Visual trap between pinga and pinto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pinga is /ˈpĩ.ɡɐ/ while pinto is /ˈpĩ.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pinga is recorded at frequency rank #24,754, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpĩ.ɡɐ/. pinto is at rank #2,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpĩ.tu/.

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 27601, this pair ranks #41,347 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pinga vs pinto

Shared letters: inp. Private to "pinga": ag. Private to "pinto": ot.

"pinga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pingaipnga · pigna · pinag · pingga · pinnga · pniga · ppinga
  • pintoipnto · pinnto · pinot · pintto · pitno · pnito · ppinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pinga" for "pinto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pinga" is an adjective and "pinto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pinga" or "pinto"?
"pinto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,847 in our Portuguese list, against #24,754 for "pinga". 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 "pinga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pinto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,347 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pinga" and "pinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piegas vs pinga". 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 #41,347 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