quanto vs quinto, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“quanto” is a pronoun and “quinto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#216
“quanto” frequency rank: #4,587
“quinto” frequency rank: 4803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	quanto	quinto
Definition	qual quantidade, qual valor	ordem de um elemento em um conjunto, que ocupe a posição equivalente ao número cinco.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set quanto and quinto apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

quanto

6 ch

quinto

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quanto is /ˈkwɐ̃.tu/ while quinto is /ˈkĩ.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “quanto” becomes i in “quinto”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quanto is recorded at frequency rank #216, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈkwɐ̃.tu/. quinto is at rank #4,587, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkĩ.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 4803, this pair ranks #69,973 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quanto vs quinto

Shared letters: noqtu. Private to "quanto": a. Private to "quinto": i.

"quanto" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "quinto" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

quanto ← qaunto · qquanto · quannto · quanot · quantto · quatno · qunato · uqanto
quinto ← qiunto · qquinto · quinnto · quinot · quintto · quitno · qunito · uqinto

Frequency comparison

quanto#216

quinto#4,587

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quanto" and "quinto" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quanto" is a pronoun and "quinto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "quanto" or "quinto"?

"quanto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #216 in our Portuguese list, against #4,587 for "quinto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering quanto vs quinto

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “quanto”; for an adjective, it's “quinto”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “quanto” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable