tengovstintoTell them apart

Quick tell: tengo is a verb, tinto is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tengo” is a verb and “tinto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,588
“tengo” frequency rank
#14,977
“tinto” frequency rank
61565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tengo tinto
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo tener que se tingiu

Letter map: tengo vs tinto

Shared letters muted; letters that set tengo and tinto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tengo
5 ch
tinto

Grammar separator: tengo vs tinto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tengo is averb and tintoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tengo is recorded at frequency rank #46,588, classified as averb. tinto is at rank #14,977, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtĩ.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 61565, this pair ranks #7,085 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tengo vs tinto

Shared letters: not. Private to "tengo": eg. Private to "tinto": i.

"tengo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tengoetngo · tegno · tenggo · tenngo · tenog · tnego · ttengo
  • tintoitnto · tinnto · tinot · tintto · titno · tnito · ttinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tengo" and "tinto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tengo" is a verb and "tinto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tengo" vs "tinto" - which ranks higher?
"tinto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,977 in our Portuguese list, against #46,588 for "tengo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "tengo" vs "tinto" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tengo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tinto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,085 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tengo" and "tinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teco vs tengo". 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 #7,085 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