tejovsteoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,836
“tejo” frequency rank
#25,838
“teo” frequency rank
72674
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tejo teo
Definition Pedazo de piedra plana y redondeada, o trozo de teja que se usa en diversos juegos. Variante de tengo

Where the eye mixes tejo and teo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tejo
3 ch
teo

Visual trap between tejo and teo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tejo is [ˈt̪exo] while teo is [ˈt̪eo]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tejo is recorded at frequency rank #46,836, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪exo]. teo is at rank #25,838, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈt̪eo].

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 72674, this pair ranks #24,887 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tejo vs teo

Shared letters: eot. Private to "tejo": j. Private to "teo": -.

"tejo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "teo" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tejoetjo · tejjo · teoj · tjeo · ttejo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tejo" and "teo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tejo" is a noun and "teo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tejo" or "teo" show up more?
"teo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,838 in our Spanish list, against #46,836 for "tejo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tejo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,887 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tejo" and "teo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tapo vs tejo". 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 #24,887 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list