tekvsTengWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tek is a verb, Teng is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tek” is a verb and “Teng” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,109
“tek” frequency rank
#46,214
“Teng” frequency rank
81323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tek Teng
Definition Pronunciation spelling of take, representing dialectal English. A surname from Hokkien.

Letter map: tek vs Teng

Shared letters muted; letters that set tek and Teng apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. tek runs 3 letters (CVC) against Teng's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
tek
4 ch
Teng

Grammar separator: tek vs Teng

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tek is averb and Tenganame. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tek is recorded at frequency rank #35,109, classified as averb, pronounced /tɛk/. Teng is at rank #46,214, tagged as aname.

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 81323, this pair ranks #17,887 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tek vs Teng

Shared letters: et. Private to "tek": k. Private to "Teng": gn.

"tek" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Teng" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Teng ← etng · tegn · tengg · tenng · tneg · tteng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tek" for "Teng" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tek" is a verb and "Teng" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tek" or "Teng"?
"tek" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,109 in our English list, against #46,214 for "Teng". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "tek" and "Teng". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Teng" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,887 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tek" and "Teng" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Teng vs twang". 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 #17,887 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list