Which to use
“tengo” is a verb and “tenso” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,588
- “tengo” frequency rank
- #11,362
- “tenso” frequency rank
- 57950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tengo | tenso |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo tener | que está sob tensão; em que há tensão |
Letter map: tengo vs tenso
Shared letters muted; letters that set tengo and tenso apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. tengo and tenso follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for tengo / tenso
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tengo is averb and tensoanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - g in “tengo” becomes s in “tenso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tengo is recorded at frequency rank #46,588, classified as averb. tenso is at rank #11,362, tagged as anadj.
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 57950, this pair ranks #9,025 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tengo vs tenso
Shared letters: enot. Private to "tengo": g. Private to "tenso": s.
"tengo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tenso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tengo" and "tenso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tengo" vs "tenso" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "tengo" and "tenso". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "tengo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tenso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,025 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tengo" and "tenso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teco 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 #9,025 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.