pinhãovspintoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,497
“pinhão” frequency rank
#2,847
“pinto” frequency rank
34344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pinhão pinto
Definition o fruto do pinheiro-manso filhote de galinha

Where the eye mixes pinhão and pinto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pinhão runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against pinto's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pinhão
5 ch
pinto

Why the eye confuses pinhão with pinto

A purely visual mix-up. pinhão (/pi.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/) and pinto (/ˈpĩ.tu/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pinhão is recorded at frequency rank #31,497, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/. 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 34344, this pair ranks #32,955 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pinhão vs pinto

Shared letters: inop. Private to "pinhão": hã. Private to "pinto": t.

"pinhão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "pinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pinto ← ipnto · pinnto · pinot · pintto · pitno · pnito · ppinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pinhão" and "pinto" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈpĩ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pinhão" or "pinto"?
"pinto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,847 in our Portuguese list, against #31,497 for "pinhão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pinhão" 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 #32,955 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pinhão" and "pinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs pinhão". 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 #32,955 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