temavstemosWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#840
“tema” frequency rank
#292
“temos” frequency rank
1132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tema temos
Definition assunto primeira pessoa do plural do presente do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tema vs temos

Shared letters muted; letters that set tema and temos apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
tema
5 ch
temos

Grammar separator: tema vs temos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tema is anoun and temosaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tema is recorded at frequency rank #840, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈte.mɐ/. temos is at rank #292, tagged as averb.

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 1132, this pair ranks #74,487 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tema vs temos

Shared letters: emt. Private to "tema": a. Private to "temos": os.

"tema" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "temos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • temaetma · team · temma · tmea · ttema
  • temosetmos · temmos · temoss · temso · teoms · tmeos · ttemos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tema" and "temos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tema" is a noun and "temos" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tema" or "temos" show up more?
"temos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #292 in our Portuguese list, against #840 for "tema". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tema" and "temos".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tema" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "temos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,487 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tema" and "temos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tema vs trema". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #74,487 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