tem vs try, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#33
“tem” frequency rank: #20,742
“try” frequency rank: 20775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tem	try
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter	tentativa

Letter map: tem vs try

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

3 ch

tem

3 ch

try

Grammar separator: tem vs try

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tem is averb and tryanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tem is recorded at frequency rank #33, classified as averb. try is at rank #20,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /traɪ/.

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 20775, this pair ranks #49,656 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs try

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "try": ry.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tem" for "try" ever safe?

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

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

"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #20,742 for "try". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "tem" vs "try" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "try" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #49,656 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tem" and "try" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "til vs try". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,656 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.