takevstalksWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#128
“take” frequency rank
#2,467
“talks” frequency rank
2595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature take talks
Definition To get into one's hands, possession, or control, with or without force. plural of talk

Where the eye mixes take and talks

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

4 ch
take
5 ch
talks

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: take is /teɪk/ while talks is /ˈtɔːks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

take is recorded at frequency rank #128, classified as averb, pronounced /teɪk/. talks is at rank #2,467, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔːks/.

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 2595, this pair ranks #524,566 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of take vs talks

Shared letters: akt. Private to "take": e. Private to "talks": ls.

"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "talks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takeatke · taek · takke · tkae · ttake
  • talksatlks · takls · talkks · talkss · tallks · talsk · tlaks · ttalks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "take" and "talks" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "take" is a verb and "talks" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "take" or "talks"?
"take" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #128 in our English list, against #2,467 for "talks". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list