to
/tuː/
"to" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“to” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #2 in English word frequency and used as a particle.
- #2
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | to |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Particle |
| IPA | /tuː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #2 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “to” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for to is 2 letters long, classified as a particle, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #2 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for to, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "TX", "Tu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, from Proto-Indo-European *de ~ *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe, te (“to… The correct English form is to, spelled T-O.
Definition
- 1A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive.
- 2As above, with the verb implied.
- 3Used to indicate an obligation on the part of, or a directive given to, the subject.
Etymology
From Middle English to, from Old English tō, from Proto-Germanic *tō ~ *ta, from Proto-Indo-European *de ~ *do (“to”). Cognate with Scots tae, to (“to”), North Frisian to, tö, tu (“to”), Saterland Frisian tou (“to”), Low German to (“to”), Dutch toe, te (“to”), German zu (“to”), West Frisian ta (“to”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ndaj (“towards”), Irish do (“to, for”), Breton da (“to, for”), Welsh i (“to, for”), Russian до (do, “to”). Doublet of too.
This word in other languages
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “to”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “TV” - see the side-by-side comparison. to vs TV
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.