sounds vs ultra, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“sounds” is a verb and “ultra” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,674
“sounds” frequency rank: #8,146
“ultra” frequency rank: 22820
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sounds	ultra
Definition	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sound	weiter hinaus, jenseits, dahinter

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sounds and ultra apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

sounds

5 ch

ultra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sounds is averb and ultraanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sounds is recorded at frequency rank #14,674, classified as averb, pronounced […]. ultra is at rank #8,146, tagged as anadv, 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 22820, this pair ranks #1,869,332 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sounds vs ultra

Shared letters: u. Private to "sounds": dnos. Private to "ultra": alrt.

"sounds" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "ultra" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

sounds ← osunds · sonuds · soudns · soundds · soundss · sounnds · sounsd · ssounds
ultra ← lutra · ulltra · ulrta · ultar · ultrra · ulttra · utlra

Frequency comparison

sounds#14,674

ultra#8,146

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sounds" and "ultra" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sounds" is a verb and "ultra" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "sounds" or "ultra"?

"ultra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,146 in our German list, against #14,674 for "sounds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sounds vs ultra

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “sounds”; for an adverb, it's “ultra”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sounds” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable