Which to use
“tengo” is a verb and “terno” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,588
- “tengo” frequency rank
- #11,363
- “terno” frequency rank
- 57951
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tengo | terno |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo tener | tenro |
Letter map: tengo vs terno
Shared letters muted; letters that set tengo and terno apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. tengo and terno 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 / terno
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tengo is averb and ternoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tengo is recorded at frequency rank #46,588, classified as averb. terno is at rank #11,363, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɛɾ.nu/.
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 57951, this pair ranks #9,024 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tengo vs terno
Shared letters: enot. Private to "tengo": g. Private to "terno": r.
"tengo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "terno" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tengo" for "terno" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tengo" vs "terno" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "tengo" vs "terno" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "tengo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "terno" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,024 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tengo" and "terno" 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 #9,024 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.