took vs tous, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#40,361
“took” frequency rank: #43,687
“tous” frequency rank: 84048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	took	tous
Definition	pretérito do verbo take	todos, todo mundo.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

took

4 ch

tous

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: took is /tʊk/ while tous is /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo). 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

took is recorded at frequency rank #40,361, classified as averb, pronounced /tʊk/. 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 84048, this pair ranks #846 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of took vs tous

Shared letters: ot. Private to "took": k. Private to "tous": su.

"took" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

took ← otok · tok · toko · tookk · ttook
tous ← otus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequency comparison

took#40,361

tous#43,687

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"took" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,361 in our Portuguese list, against #43,687 for "tous". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering took vs tous

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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