tchêvsteveConfusable pair

Quick tell: tchê is a intj, teve is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tchê” is an intj and “teve” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,803
“tchê” frequency rank
#293
“teve” frequency rank
41096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tchê teve
Definition usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do verbo ter

Letter map: tchê vs teve

Shared letters muted; letters that set tchê and teve apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. tchê (CCCV) and teve (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
tchê
4 ch
teve

Part-of-speech tell for tchê / teve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tchê is anintj and teveaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tchê is recorded at frequency rank #40,803, classified as anintj, pronounced /tʃe/. teve is at rank #293, 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 41096, this pair ranks #24,900 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tchê vs teve

Shared letters: t. Private to "tchê": chê. Private to "teve": ev.

"tchê" · 4 letters · shape CCCV  ·  "teve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teve ← etve · teev · tevve · tteve · tvee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tchê" for "teve" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tchê" is an intj and "teve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tchê" or "teve" show up more?
"teve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #293 in our Portuguese list, against #40,803 for "tchê". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "tchê" vs "teve" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tchê" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,900 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tchê" and "teve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tchê vs tune". 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 #24,900 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