tavstatuTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,113
“ta” frequency rank
#20,735
“tatu” frequency rank
24848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ta tatu
Definition e: mamífero placentário desdentado de hábitos noturnos, possuindo uma couraça protetora às costas; da ordem dos cingulados, família dos dasipodídeos

Letter map: ta vs tatu

Shared letters muted; letters that set ta and tatu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
ta
4 ch
tatu

Role in the sentence - ta and tatu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ta is aconjunction and tatuanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ta” sits inside “tatu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24848, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ta is recorded at frequency rank #4,113, classified as aconj. tatu is at rank #20,735, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ta.ˈtu/.

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 24848, this pair ranks #44,634 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ta vs tatu

Shared letters: at. Private to "ta": -. Private to "tatu": u.

"ta" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "tatu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tatuattu · tattu · taut · ttatu · ttau

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ta" for "tatu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ta" is a conjunction and "tatu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ta" or "tatu"?
"ta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,113 in our Portuguese list, against #20,735 for "tatu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ta" and "tatu".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tatu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,634 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ta" and "tatu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tak vs tatu". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #44,634 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list