teemvsteveTell them apart

Which to use

“teem” and “teve” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,238
“teem” frequency rank
#293
“teve” frequency rank
42531
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teem teve
Definition fervilhar terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do verbo ter

Letter map: teem vs teve

Shared letters muted; letters that set teem and teve apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
teem
4 ch
teve

Corpus notes: teem and teve

teem and teve are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42531, 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/. 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 42531, this pair ranks #23,234 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of teem vs teve

Shared letters: et. Private to "teem": m. Private to "teve": v.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teemetem · teemm · tteem
  • teveetve · teev · tevve · tteve · tvee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "teem" for "teve" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "teem" vs "teve" - which ranks higher?
"teve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #293 in our Portuguese list, against #42,238 for "teem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "teem" and "teve".

  • Full dictionary entry for "teem" 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 #23,234 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "teem" and "teve" 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 #23,234 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