tae vs taken, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#29,559
“tae” frequency rank: #40,041
“taken” frequency rank: 69600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tae	taken
Definition	Pied.	Accusatif masculin singulier de la déclinaison faible de tak.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tae and taken apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

tae

5 ch

taken

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tae is \taɨ\ while taken is \ˈtakn̩\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tae is recorded at frequency rank #29,559, classified as anoun, pronounced \taɨ\. taken is at rank #40,041, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈtakn̩\.

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 69600, this pair ranks #54,537 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tae vs taken

Shared letters: aet. Private to "tae": -. Private to "taken": kn.

"tae" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "taken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

taken ← atken · taekn · takenn · takken · takne · tkaen · ttaken

Frequency comparison

tae#29,559

taken#40,041

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tae" and "taken" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tae" is a noun and "taken" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "tae" or "taken"?

"tae" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,559 in our French list, against #40,041 for "taken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering tae vs taken

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tae”; for an adjective, it's “taken”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tae” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable