tíbiavstinhaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#39,413
“tíbia” frequency rank
#159
“tinha” frequency rank
39572
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tíbia tinha
Definition flauta pastoril primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tíbia vs tinha

Shared letters muted; letters that set tíbia and tinha apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tíbia
5 ch
tinha

Grammar separator: tíbia vs tinha

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tíbia is anoun and tinhaaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tíbia is recorded at frequency rank #39,413, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃi.bi.ɐ/ [ˈt͡ʃi.bɪ.ɐ], AFI: /ˈt͡ʃi.bjɐ/ (coloquial). 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 39572, this pair ranks #26,648 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tíbia vs tinha

Shared letters: ait. Private to "tíbia": . Private to "tinha": hn.

"tíbia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "tinha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tinhaitnha · tihna · tinah · tinhha · tinnha · tniha · ttinha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tíbia" for "tinha" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tíbia" is a noun and "tinha" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tíbia" or "tinha" show up more?
"tinha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #159 in our Portuguese list, against #39,413 for "tíbia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tíbia" and "tinha".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tíbia" 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 #26,648 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tíbia" and "tinha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tíbia vs titio". 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 #26,648 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