tavstakWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ta is a determiner, tak is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ta” is a determiner and “tak” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#181
“ta” frequency rank
#49,387
“tak” frequency rank
49568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ta tak
Definition Déterminant marquant la possession d’un objet (de genre féminin) appartenant à celui (de nombre singulier) à qui l’on parle. Branche (d’un arbre).

Where the eye mixes ta and tak

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
ta
3 ch
tak

Why the eye confuses ta with tak

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ta is \ta\ while tak is \tɑk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ta” sits inside “tak”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ta is recorded at frequency rank #181, classified as adet, pronounced \ta\. tak is at rank #49,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑk\.

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 49568, this pair ranks #169,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ta vs tak

Shared letters: at. Private to "ta": -. Private to "tak": k.

"ta" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "tak" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ta" and "tak" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ta" is a determiner and "tak" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ta" or "tak"?
"ta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #181 in our French list, against #49,387 for "tak". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tak" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ta" and "tak" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tak vs tif". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #169,575 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list