fotovsfourWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#812
“foto” frequency rank
#14,803
“four” frequency rank
15615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foto four
Definition Licht vier

Letter map: foto vs four

Shared letters muted; letters that set foto and four apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
foto
4 ch
four

Grammar separator: foto vs four

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foto is anoun and fouranum. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foto is recorded at frequency rank #812, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. four is at rank #14,803, tagged as anum, pronounced [fɔr].

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 15615, this pair ranks #1,942,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of foto vs four

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foto": t. Private to "four": ru.

"foto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "four" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fotoffoto · fotto · ftoo · ofto
  • fourffour · foru · fourr · fuor · ofur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foto" and "four" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foto" is a noun and "four" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "foto" or "four" show up more?
"foto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #812 in our German list, against #14,803 for "four". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "foto" vs "four" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "four" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,942,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foto" and "four" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fock vs four". 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 #1,942,478 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