Which to use
“teman” is a verb and “tenaz” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,416
- “teman” frequency rank
- #28,179
- “tenaz” frequency rank
- 66595
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teman | tenaz |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de temar. | Que se pega, ase o prende a una cosa, y es dificultoso de separar. |
Where the eye mixes teman and tenaz
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. teman and tenaz follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses teman with tenaz
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: teman is [ˈt̪emãn] while tenaz is [t̪eˈnas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teman is recorded at frequency rank #38,416, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈt̪emãn]. tenaz is at rank #28,179, tagged as anadj, pronounced [t̪eˈnas].
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 66595, this pair ranks #39,450 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teman vs tenaz
Shared letters: aent. Private to "teman": m. Private to "tenaz": z.
"teman" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tenaz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "teman" for "tenaz" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "teman" or "tenaz" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "teman" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tenaz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,450 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teman" and "tenaz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teman vs tesón". 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 #39,450 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.