ten vs tengo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#10,094
“ten” frequency rank: #46,588
“tengo” frequency rank: 56682
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ten	tengo
Definition	este, esta, esse, essa	primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo tener

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ten and tengo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

ten

5 ch

tengo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ten is apronoun and tengoaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ten” sits inside “tengo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ten is recorded at frequency rank #10,094, classified as apron. tengo is at rank #46,588, 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 56682, this pair ranks #9,820 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ten vs tengo

Shared letters: ent. Private to "ten": -. Private to "tengo": go.

"ten" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tengo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

tengo ← etngo · tegno · tenggo · tenngo · tenog · tnego · ttengo

Frequency comparison

ten#10,094

tengo#46,588

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ten" and "tengo" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "ten" or "tengo"?

"ten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,094 in our Portuguese list, against #46,588 for "tengo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ten vs tengo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “ten”; for a verb, it's “tengo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ten” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable