TuvsturnTell them apart

Quick tell: Tu is a name, turn is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Tu” is a name and “turn” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,301
“Tu” frequency rank
#484
“turn” frequency rank
10785
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tu turn
Definition A surname from Chinese. To make a non-linear physical movement.

Letter map: Tu vs turn

Shared letters muted; letters that set Tu and turn apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
Tu
4 ch
turn

Role in the sentence - Tu and turn

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Tu is aname and turnaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Tu” sits inside “turn”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tu is recorded at frequency rank #10,301, classified as aname. turn is at rank #484, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɜːn/.

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 10785, this pair ranks #490,538 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Tu vs turn

Shared letters: tu. Private to "Tu": -. Private to "turn": nr.

"Tu" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "turn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • turntrun · tturn · tunr · turnn · turrn · utrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Tu" for "turn" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tu" is a name and "turn" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Tu" vs "turn" - which ranks higher?
"turn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #484 in our English list, against #10,301 for "Tu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "Tu" vs "turn" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #490,538 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tu" and "turn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tu vs tuft". 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 #490,538 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