tenhovstinhaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tenho” and “tinha” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#90
“tenho” frequency rank
#159
“tinha” frequency rank
249
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tenho tinha
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ter primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ter

Letter map: tenho vs tinha

Shared letters muted; letters that set tenho and tinha apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
tenho
5 ch
tinha

Corpus notes: tenho and tinha

tenho and tinha are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tenho is recorded at frequency rank #90, classified as averb. tinha is at rank #159, 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 249, this pair ranks #75,388 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tenho vs tinha

Shared letters: hnt. Private to "tenho": eo. Private to "tinha": ai.

"tenho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tinha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tenhoetnho · tehno · tenhho · tennho · tenoh · tneho · ttenho
  • tinhaitnha · tihna · tinah · tinhha · tinnha · tniha · ttinha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tenho" for "tinha" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "tenho" vs "tinha" - which ranks higher?
"tenho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #90 in our Portuguese list, against #159 for "tinha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tenho" and "tinha".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tenho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tinha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,388 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tenho" and "tinha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tainha vs tinha". 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 #75,388 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