Which to use
“tam” is an adverb and “teem” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,345
- “tam” frequency rank
- #42,238
- “teem” frequency rank
- 54583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tam | teem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lá, aí, ali, acolá | fervilhar |
Letter map: tam vs teem
Shared letters muted; letters that set tam and teem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. tam runs 3 letters (CVC) against teem's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for tam / teem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tam is anadverb and teemaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tam is recorded at frequency rank #12,345, classified as anadv. teem is at rank #42,238, tagged as averb, pronounced /tiːm/.
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 54583, this pair ranks #11,165 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tam vs teem
Shared letters: mt. Private to "tam": a. Private to "teem": e.
"tam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "teem" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- teem ← etem · teemm · tteem
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tam" for "teem" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tam" or "teem"?
What to do next
Pair "tam" vs "teem" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "tam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "teem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,165 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tam" and "teem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teem vs trema". 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 #11,165 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.