tem vs to, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tem” is a verb and “to” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33
“tem” frequency rank: #164
“to” frequency rank: 197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tem	to
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter	marca o verbo seguinte como infinitivo

Letter map: tem vs to

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

3 ch

tem

2 ch

Grammar separator: tem vs to

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tem is averb and toaparticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tem is recorded at frequency rank #33, classified as averb. to is at rank #164, tagged as aparticle.

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 197, this pair ranks #75,433 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs to

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "to": o.

"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "to" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tem" and "to" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tem" is a verb and "to" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "tem" vs "to" - which ranks higher?

"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #164 for "to". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "tem" and "to". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "to" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,433 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tem" and "to" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "to vs tufo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,433 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.