tinhavstintoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#159
“tinha” frequency rank
#14,977
“tinto” frequency rank
15136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tinha tinto
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ter que se tingiu

Letter map: tinha vs tinto

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

5 ch
tinha
5 ch
tinto

Grammar separator: tinha vs tinto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tinha 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 15136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tinha is recorded at frequency rank #159, 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 15136, this pair ranks #56,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tinha vs tinto

Shared letters: int. Private to "tinha": ah. Private to "tinto": o.

"tinha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tinhaitnha · tihna · tinah · tinhha · tinnha · tniha · ttinha
  • tintoitnto · tinnto · tinot · tintto · titno · tnito · ttinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tinha" and "tinto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tinha" is a verb and "tinto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tinha" or "tinto" show up more?
"tinha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #159 in our Portuguese list, against #14,977 for "tinto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tinha" 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 #56,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tinha" and "tinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tengo vs tinto". 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 #56,770 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