teevstiveWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,164
“tee” frequency rank
#730
“tive” frequency rank
31894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tee tive
Definition chá primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tee vs tive

Shared letters muted; letters that set tee and tive apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
tee
4 ch
tive

Grammar separator: tee vs tive

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tee is anoun and tiveaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tee is recorded at frequency rank #31,164, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteː/. tive is at rank #730, 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 31894, this pair ranks #36,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tee vs tive

Shared letters: et. Private to "tee": -. Private to "tive": iv.

"tee" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "tive" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tiveitve · tiev · tivve · ttive · tvie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tee" and "tive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tee" is a noun and "tive" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tee" or "tive"?
"tive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #730 in our Portuguese list, against #31,164 for "tee". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tee" and "tive".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tee" and "tive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tee 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 #36,060 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