tearvsteveConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#31,581
“tear” frequency rank
#293
“teve” frequency rank
31874
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tear teve
Definition aparelho ou máquina de tecer terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do verbo ter

Letter map: tear vs teve

Shared letters muted; letters that set tear and teve apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
tear
4 ch
teve

Grammar separator: tear vs teve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tear is anoun and teveaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tear is recorded at frequency rank #31,581, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtjaɾ/. 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 31874, this pair ranks #36,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tear vs teve

Shared letters: et. Private to "tear": ar. Private to "teve": v.

"tear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "teve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tearetar · taer · tearr · ttear
  • teveetve · teev · tevve · tteve · tvee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tear" for "teve" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tear" is a noun and "teve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tear" or "teve"?
"teve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #293 in our Portuguese list, against #31,581 for "tear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tear" 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 #36,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tear" and "teve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tear vs teco". 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 #36,089 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