vstulWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“té” and “tul” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,126
“té” frequency rank
#47,471
“tul” frequency rank
51597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tul
Definition (Camellia sinensis) Arbusto de la famila de las cameliáceas, originario de Assam y de Bengala. Fue cultivado en China desde el siglo IV e introducido en Europa en el siglo XVI. Es perenne, de no más de 4 metros de altura, con hojas lanceoladas, ligeramente pubescentes, de hasta 15 centímetros de longitud y 5 de ancho. Las flores son blanco-amarillentas. Tejido delgado y transparente que permite pasar la luz.

Where the eye mixes té and tul

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

2 ch
té
3 ch
tul

Look-alike desk: té vs tul

A purely visual mix-up. ([ˈt̪e]) and tul ([ˈt̪ul]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #4,126, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪e]. tul is at rank #47,471, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt̪ul].

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 51597, this pair ranks #97,102 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of té vs tul

Shared letters: t. Private to "té": é. Private to "tul": lu.

"té" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "tul" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "té" for "tul" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt̪e] versus [ˈt̪ul]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "té" or "tul" show up more?
"té" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,126 in our Spanish list, against #47,471 for "tul". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "té" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,102 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "té" and "tul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tale vs tul". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #97,102 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