temvsTodWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33
“tem” frequency rank
#28,804
“Tod” frequency rank
28837
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tem Tod
Definition terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter morte.

Letter map: tem vs Tod

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

3 ch
tem
3 ch
Tod

Role in the sentence - tem and Tod

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tem is averb and Todanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tem is recorded at frequency rank #33, classified as averb. Tod is at rank #28,804, tagged as anoun, pronounced [toːt], Plural: [ˈtoː.də].

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 28837, this pair ranks #39,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs Tod

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "Tod": do.

"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Tod" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tem" for "Tod" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tem" is a verb and "Tod" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tem" or "Tod" show up more?
"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #28,804 for "Tod". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tod" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tem" and "Tod" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tod vs tosa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,933 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