tam vs tem, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tam” is an adverb and “tem” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,345
“tam” frequency rank: #33
“tem” frequency rank: 12378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tam	tem
Definition	lá, aí, ali, acolá	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tam vs tem

Shared letters muted; letters that set tam and tem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

tam

3 ch

tem

Grammar separator: tam vs tem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tam is anadverb and temaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “tam” becomes e in “tem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tam is recorded at frequency rank #12,345, classified as anadv. tem is at rank #33, tagged as averb.

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 12378, this pair ranks #60,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tam vs tem

Shared letters: mt. Private to "tam": a. Private to "tem": e.

"tam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tam" for "tem" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tam" is an adverb and "tem" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tam" or "tem" show up more?

"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #12,345 for "tam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "tam" and "tem". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "tam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #60,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tam" and "tem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tam vs tampo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #60,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.