til vs to, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“til” is a preposition and “to” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,972
“til” frequency rank: #1,128
“to” frequency rank: 30100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	til	to
Definition	Hasta.	Dos.

Where the eye mixes til and to

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

3 ch

til

2 ch

Look-alike desk: til vs to

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: til is /tɪl/ while to is [toːˀ]. 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 (preposition vs num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

til is recorded at frequency rank #28,972, classified as aprep, pronounced /tɪl/. to is at rank #1,128, tagged as anum, pronounced [toːˀ].

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 30100, this pair ranks #213,677 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of til vs to

Shared letters: t. Private to "til": il. Private to "to": o.

"til" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "to" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "til" for "to" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "til" is a preposition and "to" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "til" vs "to" - which ranks higher?

"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,128 in our Spanish list, against #28,972 for "til". 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 "til" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "to" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #213,677 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"til" and "to" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tale vs til". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #213,677 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.