taxvstemWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,800
“tax” frequency rank
#33
“tem” frequency rank
35833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tax tem
Definition apócope de táxi terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tax vs tem

Shared letters muted; letters that set tax and tem apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
tax
3 ch
tem

Role in the sentence - tax and tem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tax is anoun and temaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tax is recorded at frequency rank #35,800, classified as anoun, pronounced /taks/. 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 35833, this pair ranks #31,130 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tax vs tem

Shared letters: t. Private to "tax": ax. Private to "tem": em.

"tax" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tax" for "tem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tax" is a noun and "tem" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tax" or "tem"?
"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #35,800 for "tax". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tax" 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 #31,130 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tax" and "tem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tax vs til". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,130 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list