thavstiraWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,931
“tha” frequency rank
#1,953
“tira” frequency rank
40884
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tha tira
Definition presente do verbo bi (ser, estar); sou/estou, é/está, somos/estamos, são/estão retalho ou pedaço de pano, papel ou outro material, mais comprido que largo

Where the eye mixes tha and tira

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
tha
4 ch
tira

Why the eye confuses tha with tira

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tha is /ha/ while tira is /ˈt͡ʃi.ɾɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tha is recorded at frequency rank #38,931, classified as averb, pronounced /ha/. tira is at rank #1,953, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃi.ɾɐ/.

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 40884, this pair ranks #25,144 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tha vs tira

Shared letters: at. Private to "tha": h. Private to "tira": ir.

"tha" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "tira" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tiraitra · tiar · tria · ttira

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tha" and "tira" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tha" is a verb and "tira" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tha" or "tira" show up more?
"tira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,953 in our Portuguese list, against #38,931 for "tha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,144 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tha" and "tira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tha vs tosa". 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 #25,144 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