tem vs ty, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#33
“tem” frequency rank: #23,157
“ty” frequency rank: 23190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tem	ty
Definition	terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter	tu, você (pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da segunda pessoa do singular)

Letter map: tem vs ty

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

3 ch

tem

2 ch

Role in the sentence - tem and ty

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tem is averb and tyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tem is recorded at frequency rank #33, classified as averb. ty is at rank #23,157, tagged as apron.

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 23190, this pair ranks #46,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs ty

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "ty": y.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which is more common, "tem" or "ty"?

"tem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33 in our Portuguese list, against #23,157 for "ty". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tem" and "ty".

Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #46,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"tem" and "ty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "til vs ty". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #46,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.