Which to use
“teem” is a verb and “ten” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,238
- “teem” frequency rank
- #10,094
- “ten” frequency rank
- 52332
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teem | ten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | fervilhar | este, esta, esse, essa |
Letter map: teem vs ten
Shared letters muted; letters that set teem and ten apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - teem and ten
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: teem is averb and tenapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teem is recorded at frequency rank #42,238, classified as averb, pronounced /tiːm/. ten is at rank #10,094, tagged as apron.
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 52332, this pair ranks #12,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teem vs ten
Shared letters: et. Private to "teem": m. Private to "ten": n.
"teem" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ten" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- teem ← etem · teemm · tteem
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "teem" for "ten" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "teem" or "ten" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "teem" and "ten". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "teem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teem" and "ten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teem vs trema". 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 #12,843 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.