tenvsthaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ten is a pronoun, tha is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,094
“ten” frequency rank
#38,931
“tha” frequency rank
49025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ten tha
Definition este, esta, esse, essa presente do verbo bi (ser, estar); sou/estou, é/está, somos/estamos, são/estão

Letter map: ten vs tha

Shared letters muted; letters that set ten and tha apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ten
3 ch
tha

Grammar separator: ten vs tha

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ten is apronoun and thaaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ten is recorded at frequency rank #10,094, classified as apron. tha is at rank #38,931, tagged as averb, pronounced /ha/.

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 49025, this pair ranks #16,054 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ten vs tha

Shared letters: t. Private to "ten": en. Private to "tha": ah.

"ten" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tha" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ten" for "tha" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ten" is a pronoun and "tha" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ten" or "tha"?
"ten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,094 in our Portuguese list, against #38,931 for "tha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "ten" and "tha". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,054 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ten" and "tha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tha vs tosa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,054 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