tenazvstendeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tenaz is a adjective, tende is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tenaz” is an adjective and “tende” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,239
“tenaz” frequency rank
#6,951
“tende” frequency rank
49190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tenaz tende
Definition muito aderente segunda pessoa do plural do imperativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tenaz vs tende

Shared letters muted; letters that set tenaz and tende apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tenaz (CVCVC) and tende (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
tenaz
5 ch
tende

Part-of-speech tell for tenaz / tende

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tenaz is anadjective and tendeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tenaz is recorded at frequency rank #42,239, classified as anadj, pronounced /tɨ.ˈnaʃ/. tende is at rank #6,951, 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 49190, this pair ranks #15,873 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tenaz vs tende

Shared letters: ent. Private to "tenaz": az. Private to "tende": d.

"tenaz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tende" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tenaz ← etnaz · teanz · tenazz · tennaz · tenza · tneaz · ttenaz
  • tende ← etnde · tedne · tendde · tened · tennde · tnede · ttende

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tenaz" and "tende" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tenaz" is an adjective and "tende" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tenaz" or "tende" show up more?
"tende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,951 in our Portuguese list, against #42,239 for "tenaz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "tenaz" vs "tende" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tenaz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,873 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tenaz" and "tende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tenaz vs tengo". 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 #15,873 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