Deutsch homophones

tout/tu/two

"tout" is an adjective; "tu" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "tout" arrives as an adjective, while "tu" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "tout" is 4 letters, "tu" is 2; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "tout" is 4 letters, "two" is 3; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "tu" is 2 letters, "two" is 3; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across tout, tu, two: t. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • tout

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory otu · private ou

  • tu

    2 letters · 1 vowels · shape CV

    Inventory tu · private u

  • two

    3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCV

    Inventory otw · private ow

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "tout" when you mean: all
  • Write "tu" when you mean: 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun
  • Write "two" when you mean: zwei

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • toutotut · totu · toutt · ttout · tuot

Each spelling

tout

adjective · /tu/ · #42,186 frequency

all

tu

verb · /tuː/ · #2,620 frequency

2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tun

two

num · /tuː/ · #7,679 frequency

zwei

Nearby German homophone groups

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list