always vs TO, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“always” is an adverb and “TO” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,797
“always” frequency rank: #589
“TO” frequency rank: 19386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	always	TO
Definition	immer	KFZ-Kennzeichen für Torino (Turin)

Letter map: always vs TO

Shared letters muted; letters that set always and TO apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

6 ch

always

2 ch

Grammar separator: always vs TO

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: always is anadverb and TOanabbrev. On the page they differ by 4 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

always is recorded at frequency rank #18,797, classified as anadv, pronounced […]. TO is at rank #589, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced […].

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 19386, this pair ranks #1,908,855 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of always vs TO

Shared letters: none. Private to "always": alswy. Private to "TO": ot.

"always" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC · "TO" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

always ← alawys · allways · alwasy · alwayss · alwayys · alwways · alwyas · awlays

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "always" and "TO" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "always" is an adverb and "TO" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "always" vs "TO" - which ranks higher?

"TO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our German list, against #18,797 for "always". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "always" vs "TO" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "always" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "TO" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,908,855 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"always" and "TO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "always vs puzzles". Nearby pair
Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,908,855 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.