scalavsTOTell them apart

Quick tell: scala is a noun, TO is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,908
“scala” frequency rank
#589
“TO” frequency rank
25497
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scala TO
Definition die Skala KFZ-Kennzeichen für Torino (Turin)

Letter map: scala vs TO

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

5 ch
scala
2 ch
TO

Grammar separator: scala vs TO

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: scala is anoun and TOanabbrev. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scala is recorded at frequency rank #24,908, classified as anoun, 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 25497, this pair ranks #1,832,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of scala vs TO

Shared letters: none. Private to "scala": acls. Private to "TO": ot.

"scala" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "TO" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scalacsala · sacla · scaal · scalla · sccala · sclaa · sscala

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scala" for "TO" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scala" is a noun and "TO" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "scala" or "TO" show up more?
"TO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our German list, against #24,908 for "scala". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "scala" and "TO". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scala" 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 #1,832,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scala" and "TO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs scala". 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 #1,832,384 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