tenazvstenhamWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#42,239
“tenaz” frequency rank
#1,261
“tenham” frequency rank
43500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tenaz tenham
Definition muito aderente terceira pessoa do plural do presente do conjuntivo do verbo ter

Letter map: tenaz vs tenham

Shared letters muted; letters that set tenaz and tenham apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. tenaz runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against tenham's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tenaz
6 ch
tenham

Role in the sentence - tenaz and tenham

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tenaz is anadjective and tenhamaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43500, 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/. tenham is at rank #1,261, 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 43500, this pair ranks #22,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tenaz vs tenham

Shared letters: aent. Private to "tenaz": z. Private to "tenham": hm.

"tenaz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tenham" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tenaz ← etnaz · teanz · tenazz · tennaz · tenza · tneaz · ttenaz
  • tenham ← etnham · tehnam · tenahm · tenhamm · tenhham · tenhma · tennham · tneham

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tenaz" and "tenham" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tenaz" is an adjective and "tenham" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tenaz" vs "tenham" - which ranks higher?
"tenham" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,261 in our Portuguese list, against #42,239 for "tenaz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "tenaz" and "tenham". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tenaz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tenham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tenaz" and "tenham" 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 #22,120 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