takvsthatTell them apart

Quick tell: tak is a particle, that is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tak” is a particle and “that” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,692
“tak” frequency rank
#3,648
“that” frequency rank
46340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tak that
Definition sim que

Letter map: tak vs that

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

3 ch
tak
4 ch
that

Role in the sentence - tak and that

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tak is aparticle and thataconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tak is recorded at frequency rank #42,692, classified as aparticle. that is at rank #3,648, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ðæt/.

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 46340, this pair ranks #18,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tak vs that

Shared letters: at. Private to "tak": k. Private to "that": h.

"tak" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thathtat · taht · thatt · thhat · thta · tthat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tak" for "that" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tak" is a particle and "that" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tak" vs "that" - which ranks higher?
"that" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,648 in our Portuguese list, against #42,692 for "tak". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "tak" and "that".

  • Full dictionary entry for "tak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "that" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tak" and "that" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tak vs til". 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 #18,985 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