te vs til, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“te” is a pronoun and “til” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#59
“te” frequency rank: #44,136
“til” frequency rank: 44195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	te	til
Definition	a ti	sinal diacrítico (~) utilizado para modificar a pronúncia de determinadas letras no português (indicando nasalização) e em alguns outros idiomas ( bretão ...)

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set te and til apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

2 ch

3 ch

til

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: te is /tɨ/ while til is /ˈʧiw/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

te is recorded at frequency rank #59, classified as apron, pronounced /tɨ/. til is at rank #44,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʧiw/.

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 44195, this pair ranks #21,334 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of te vs til

Shared letters: t. Private to "te": e. Private to "til": il.

"te" · 2 letters · shape CV · "til" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

te#59

til#44,136

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "te" and "til" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "te" is a pronoun and "til" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "te" or "til"?

"te" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #59 in our Portuguese list, against #44,136 for "til". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering te vs til

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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