Which to use
“bald” is an adverb and “baut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #417
- “bald” frequency rank
- #3,357
- “baut” frequency rank
- 3774
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bald | baut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | kurze Zeit danach | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bauen |
Where the eye mixes bald and baut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bald is [balt] while baut is [baʊ̯t]. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bald is recorded at frequency rank #417, classified as anadv, pronounced [balt]. baut is at rank #3,357, tagged as averb, pronounced [baʊ̯t].
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 3774, this pair ranks #1,999,401 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bald vs baut
Shared letters: ab. Private to "bald": dl. Private to "baut": tu.
"bald" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "baut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC