to vs tous, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“to” is a particle and “tous” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#164
“to” frequency rank: #43,687
“tous” frequency rank: 43851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	to	tous
Definition	marca o verbo seguinte como infinitivo	todos, todo mundo.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set to and tous apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

2 ch

4 ch

tous

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: to is aparticle and tousapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “to” sits inside “tous”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

to is recorded at frequency rank #164, classified as aparticle. tous is at rank #43,687, tagged as apron, pronounced /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo).

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 43851, this pair ranks #21,736 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of to vs tous

Shared letters: ot. Private to "to": -. Private to "tous": su.

"to" · 2 letters · shape CV · "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

tous ← otus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequency comparison

to#164

tous#43,687

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "to" and "tous" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "to" or "tous"?

"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #164 in our Portuguese list, against #43,687 for "tous". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering to vs tous

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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