to vs too, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“to” is a particle and “too” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2
“to” frequency rank: #121
“too” frequency rank: 123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	to	too
Definition	A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.	Likewise.

Same sound, different letters: to vs too

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

2 ch

3 ch

too

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: to and too carry the same recorded pronunciation, /tuː/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is aparticle, the other anadverb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “to” sits inside “too”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

to is recorded at frequency rank #2, classified as aparticle, pronounced /tuː/. too is at rank #121, tagged as anadv, pronounced /tuː/.

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 123, this pair ranks #529,852 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of to vs too

Shared letters: ot. Private to "to": -. Private to "too": -.

"to" · 2 letters · shape CV · "too" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "to" and "too" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "to" is a particle and "too" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "to" or "too"?

"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2 in our English list, against #121 for "too". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.