to vs tu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#164
“to” frequency rank: #243
“tu” frequency rank: 407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	to	tu
Definition	marca o verbo seguinte como infinitivo	expressa sonoridade produzido por telefone indicativo de que o aparelho telefonado foi posto no gancho ou que a linha caiu

Letter map: to vs tu

Shared letters muted; letters that set to and tu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

Grammar separator: to vs tu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: to is aparticle and tuanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - o in “to” becomes u in “tu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

to is recorded at frequency rank #164, classified as aparticle. 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 407, this pair ranks #75,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of to vs tu

Shared letters: t. Private to "to": o. Private to "tu": u.

"to" · 2 letters · shape CV · "tu" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "to" for "tu" ever safe?

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

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

"to" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #164 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

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

Full dictionary entry for "to" 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 #75,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"to" and "tu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tu vs tufo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,239 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.