tem vs tha, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#33
“tem” frequency rank: #38,931
“tha” frequency rank: 38964
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tem	tha
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter	presente do verbo bi (ser, estar); sou/estou, é/está, somos/estamos, são/estão

Letter map: tem vs tha

Shared letters muted; letters that set tem and tha apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

tem

3 ch

tha

Spelling & dictionary notes on tem vs tha

tem and tha 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 38964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tem is recorded at frequency rank #33, classified as averb. tha is at rank #38,931, tagged as averb, pronounced /ha/.

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 38964, this pair ranks #27,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs tha

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "tha": ah.

"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tha" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tem" for "tha" 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.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tem" or "tha" show up more?

"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #38,931 for "tha". 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 "tem" and "tha".

Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #27,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tem" and "tha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tha vs tosa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #27,409 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.