tainhavstinhaTell them apart

Quick tell: tainha is a noun, tinha is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tainha” is a noun and “tinha” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,633
“tainha” frequency rank
#159
“tinha” frequency rank
47792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tainha tinha
Definition peixe da família dos mugilídeos, também chamado fataça, mugem, etc. primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tainha vs tinha

Shared letters muted; letters that set tainha and tinha apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
tainha
5 ch
tinha

Role in the sentence - tainha and tinha

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tainha is anoun and tinhaaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tainha is recorded at frequency rank #47,633, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɐ.ˈi.ɲɐ/. tinha is at rank #159, tagged as averb.

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 47792, this pair ranks #17,433 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tainha vs tinha

Shared letters: ahint. Private to "tainha": -. Private to "tinha": -.

"tainha" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "tinha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tainhaatinha · taihna · tainah · tainhha · tainnha · taniha · tianha · ttainha
  • tinhaitnha · tihna · tinah · tinhha · tinnha · tniha · ttinha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tainha" and "tinha" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tainha" is a noun and "tinha" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tainha" vs "tinha" - which ranks higher?
"tinha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #159 in our Portuguese list, against #47,633 for "tainha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "tainha" vs "tinha" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tainha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tinha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,433 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tainha" and "tinha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tainha vs trinca". 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 #17,433 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