tenhovstênisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tenho is a verb, tênis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tenho” is a verb and “tênis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#90
“tenho” frequency rank
#3,294
“tênis” frequency rank
3384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tenho tênis
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter desporto individual (ou de duplas) no qual os jogadores enviam um ao outro uma pequena bola, com ajuda de raquetes por sobre uma rede que divide a quadra de jogo

Letter map: tenho vs tênis

Shared letters muted; letters that set tenho and tênis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

5 ch
tenho
5 ch
tênis

Part-of-speech tell for tenho / tênis

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tenho is averb and tênisanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tenho is recorded at frequency rank #90, classified as averb. tênis is at rank #3,294, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈte.nis/.

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 3384, this pair ranks #71,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tenho vs tênis

Shared letters: nt. Private to "tenho": eho. Private to "tênis": isê.

"tenho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tênis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tenhoetnho · tehno · tenhho · tennho · tenoh · tneho · ttenho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tenho" and "tênis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tenho" is a verb and "tênis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tenho" or "tênis" show up more?
"tenho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #90 in our Portuguese list, against #3,294 for "tênis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "tenho" vs "tênis" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tenho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tênis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tenho" and "tênis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tengo vs tênis". 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 #71,777 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