pingosvspingueTell them apart

Quick tell: pingos is a noun, pingue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#37,467
“pingos” frequency rank
#38,425
“pingue” frequency rank
75892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pingos pingue
Definition plural de pingo crasso, gorduroso

Where the eye mixes pingos and pingue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pingos
6 ch
pingue

Look-alike desk: pingos vs pingue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pingos is /ˈpĩ.ɡus/ while pingue is /ˈpĩ.ɡɨ/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pingos is recorded at frequency rank #37,467, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpĩ.ɡus/. pingue is at rank #38,425, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpĩ.ɡɨ/.

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 75892, this pair ranks #2,208 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pingos vs pingue

Shared letters: ginp. Private to "pingos": os. Private to "pingue": eu.

"pingos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pingue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pingosipngos · pignos · pinggos · pingoss · pingso · pinngos · pinogs · pnigos
  • pingueipngue · pignue · pingeu · pinggue · pinngue · pinuge · pnigue · ppingue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pingos" and "pingue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pingos" is a noun and "pingue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pingos" or "pingue" show up more?
"pingos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,467 in our Portuguese list, against #38,425 for "pingue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pingos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pingue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,208 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pingos" and "pingue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piegas vs pingos". 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 #2,208 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