te vs tu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#59
“te” frequency rank: #243
“tu” frequency rank: 302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	te	tu
Definition	a ti	expressa sonoridade produzido por telefone indicativo de que o aparelho telefonado foi posto no gancho ou que a linha caiu

Where the eye mixes te and tu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

Visual trap between te and tu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: te is /tɨ/ while tu is /ˈtu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “te” becomes u in “tu”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

te is recorded at frequency rank #59, classified as apron, pronounced /tɨ/. tu is at rank #243, tagged as anintj, pronounced /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 302, this pair ranks #75,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of te vs tu

Shared letters: t. Private to "te": e. Private to "tu": u.

"te" · 2 letters · shape CV · "tu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "te" vs "tu" - which ranks higher?

"te" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #59 in our Portuguese list, against #243 for "tu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "te" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #75,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"te" and "tu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tu vs tufo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.