tu

[tuː]

/[tuː]/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“tu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,620) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,620
frequency rank, German
2,684
“T” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun

Corpus desk

Index DE-tu · tu · German

tu · rank #2,620 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,620
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,684
  • PHOTO-FINISH Tiefe

Nearest frequency peer: Tiefe (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „tu“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „tu“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

tu vs TV
0% similar
tu vs Tz
0% similar
tu vs ty
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for tu
PropertyValue
Headwordtu
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[tuː]
Letters2
Frequency rank#2,620
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „tu“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.tuliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Tiefe“ (#2,619), „Ungarn“ (#2,621), „sämtliche“ (#2,618). Unter 2,684 „T“-Lemmata liegt „tu“ bei #2,620. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for tu is neighbouring look-alikes ("TV", "Tz", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced [tuː]. Frequency #2,620 among 2,684 “T” headwords. Gloss: "2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun".

tu has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "Tz", "ty", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is tu, spelled T-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tu"?
"tu" is spelled T-U. The IPA pronunciation is [tuː].
What does "tu" mean?
As a verb, "tu" means: 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun
What words are commonly confused with "tu"?
"tu" is commonly confused with "TV", "Tz", "ty". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tu" is [tuː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tu" come from?
"tu" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list