takevstrueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: take is a verb, true is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“take” is a verb and “true” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,341
“take” frequency rank
#9,418
“true” frequency rank
16759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature take true
Definition tomar (pegar, passar a estar sob posse) verdadeiro, verídico

Where the eye mixes take and true

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

4 ch
take
4 ch
true

Look-alike desk: take vs true

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: take is /teɪk/ while true is /truː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

take is recorded at frequency rank #7,341, classified as averb, pronounced /teɪk/. true is at rank #9,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced /truː/.

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 16759, this pair ranks #54,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of take vs true

Shared letters: et. Private to "take": ak. Private to "true": ru.

"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "true" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takeatke · taek · takke · tkae · ttake
  • truertue · treu · trrue · ttrue · ture

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "take" for "true" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "take" is a verb and "true" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "take" or "true"?
"take" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,341 in our Portuguese list, against #9,418 for "true". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "take" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "true" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "take" and "true" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tique vs true". 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 #54,692 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