tervstheirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#60
“ter” frequency rank
#7,842
“their” frequency rank
7902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ter their
Definition acompanhado de verbo no particípio regular, indica ação passada futuro do verbo abair

Where the eye mixes ter and their

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ter
5 ch
their

Look-alike desk: ter vs their

A purely visual mix-up. ter (/ˈteɹ/) and their (/he:r/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ter is recorded at frequency rank #60, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈteɹ/. their is at rank #7,842, tagged as averb, pronounced /he:r/.

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 7902, this pair ranks #66,073 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ter vs their

Shared letters: ert. Private to "ter": -. Private to "their": hi.

"ter" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "their" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • theirhteir · tehir · theirr · theri · thheir · thier · ttheir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ter" and "their" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈteɹ/ versus /he:r/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ter" vs "their" - which ranks higher?
"ter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #60 in our Portuguese list, against #7,842 for "their". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "their" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,073 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ter" and "their" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ter vs til". 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 #66,073 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