duovsdutyConfusable pair

Quick tell: duo is a num, duty is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“duo” is a num and “duty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,822
“duo” frequency rank
#21,948
“duty” frequency rank
27770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature duo duty
Definition zwei die moralische oder gesetzliche Pflicht

Letter map: duo vs duty

Shared letters muted; letters that set duo and duty apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
duo
4 ch
duty

Part-of-speech tell for duo / duty

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: duo is anum and dutyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

duo is recorded at frequency rank #5,822, classified as anum, pronounced […]. duty is at rank #21,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈdjuːti].

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 27770, this pair ranks #1,796,184 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of duo vs duty

Shared letters: du. Private to "duo": o. Private to "duty": ty.

"duo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "duty" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dutydduty · dtuy · dutty · dutyy · duyt · udty

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "duo" for "duty" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "duo" is a num and "duty" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "duo" or "duty" show up more?
"duo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,822 in our German list, against #21,948 for "duty". 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 "duo" and "duty".

  • Full dictionary entry for "duo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,796,184 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "duo" and "duty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "duch vs duty". 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 #1,796,184 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list