tengovstrigoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tengo is a verb, trigo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#46,588
“tengo” frequency rank
#7,348
“trigo” frequency rank
53936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tengo trigo
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo tener de trigo; feito de trigo

Letter map: tengo vs trigo

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

5 ch
tengo
5 ch
trigo

Part-of-speech tell for tengo / trigo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tengo is averb and trigoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tengo is recorded at frequency rank #46,588, classified as averb. trigo is at rank #7,348, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɾi.ɡu/.

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 53936, this pair ranks #11,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tengo vs trigo

Shared letters: got. Private to "tengo": en. Private to "trigo": ir.

"tengo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "trigo" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tengo ← etngo · tegno · tenggo · tenngo · tenog · tnego · ttengo
  • trigo ← rtigo · tirgo · trgio · triggo · triog · trrigo · ttrigo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tengo" and "trigo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tengo" is a verb and "trigo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tengo" vs "trigo" - which ranks higher?
"trigo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,348 in our Portuguese list, against #46,588 for "tengo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "tengo" and "trigo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tengo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "trigo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tengo" and "trigo" 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 #11,676 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