talksvstasksTell them apart

Which to use

“talks” and “tasks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,467
“talks” frequency rank
#4,904
“tasks” frequency rank
7371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talks tasks
Definition plural of talk plural of task

Where the eye mixes talks and tasks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
talks
5 ch
tasks

Look-alike desk: talks vs tasks

A purely visual mix-up. talks (/ˈtɔːks/) and tasks (/tɑːsks/) 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 a single letter - l in “talks” becomes s in “tasks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talks is recorded at frequency rank #2,467, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔːks/. tasks is at rank #4,904, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɑːsks/.

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 7371, this pair ranks #507,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of talks vs tasks

Shared letters: akst. Private to "talks": l. Private to "tasks": -.

"talks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "tasks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talksatlks · takls · talkks · talkss · tallks · talsk · tlaks · ttalks
  • tasksatsks · takss · taskks · taskss · tassks · tsaks · ttasks

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "talks" and "tasks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtɔːks/ versus /tɑːsks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "talks" or "tasks"?
"talks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,467 in our English list, against #4,904 for "tasks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "talks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tasks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #507,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talks" and "tasks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talkies vs talks". 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 #507,407 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list