taevsConfusable pair

Quick tell: tae is a noun, is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tae” is a noun and “tú” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,830
“tae” frequency rank
#310
“tú” frequency rank
18140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tae
Definition Té. Nominativo y vocativo del pronombre personal de la segunda persona del singular.

Where the eye mixes tae and tú

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
tae
2 ch
tú

Why the eye confuses tae with tú

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tae is [t̪ˠeː] while is [ˈt̪u]. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tae is recorded at frequency rank #17,830, classified as anoun, pronounced [t̪ˠeː]. is at rank #310, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈt̪u].

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 18140, this pair ranks #269,185 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tae vs tú

Shared letters: t. Private to "tae": ae. Private to "tú": ú.

"tae" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "tú" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tae" and "tú" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tae" is a noun and "tú" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tae" or "tú" show up more?
"tú" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #310 in our Spanish list, against #17,830 for "tae". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "tae" and "tú" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tú" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #269,185 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tae" and "tú" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tae vs task". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #269,185 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list