tesãovstosaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,225
“tesão” frequency rank
#47,644
“tosa” frequency rank
54869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tesão tosa
Definition rijeza falar, conversar

Letter map: tesão vs tosa

Shared letters muted; letters that set tesão and tosa apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. tesão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against tosa's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tesão
4 ch
tosa

Grammar separator: tesão vs tosa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tesão is anoun and tosaaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tesão is recorded at frequency rank #7,225, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. tosa is at rank #47,644, 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 54869, this pair ranks #10,979 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tesão vs tosa

Shared letters: ost. Private to "tesão": eã. Private to "tosa": a.

"tesão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "tosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tosa ← otsa · toas · tossa · tsoa · ttosa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tesão" and "tosa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tesão" is a noun and "tosa" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tesão" vs "tosa" - which ranks higher?
"tesão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,225 in our Portuguese list, against #47,644 for "tosa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tesão" and "tosa".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tesão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,979 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tesão" and "tosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tosa vs tuna". 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 #10,979 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