foodsvstoolsConfusable pair

Quick tell: foods is a noun, tools is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foods” is a noun and “tools” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,879
“foods” frequency rank
#12,399
“tools” frequency rank
56278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foods tools
Definition Plural des Substantivs food 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tool

Letter map: foods vs tools

Shared letters muted; letters that set foods and tools apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. foods and tools follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
foods
5 ch
tools

Role in the sentence - foods and tools

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foods is anoun and toolsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foods is recorded at frequency rank #43,879, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. tools is at rank #12,399, tagged as averb, 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 56278, this pair ranks #946,476 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foods vs tools

Shared letters: os. Private to "foods": df. Private to "tools": lt.

"foods" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "tools" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foods ← ffoods · fodos · fods · foodds · foodss · foosd · ofods
  • tools ← otols · tolos · tols · toolls · toolss · toosl · ttools

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foods" for "tools" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foods" is a noun and "tools" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "foods" or "tools"?
"tools" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,399 in our German list, against #43,879 for "foods". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "foods" and "tools". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tools" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #946,476 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foods" and "tools" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foods 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 #946,476 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