takevstautWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: take is a adjective, taut is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“take” is an adjective and “taut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,953
“take” frequency rank
#49,293
“taut” frequency rank
58246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature take taut
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs tak 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tauen

Where the eye mixes take and taut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
take
4 ch
taut

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: take is [ˈtakə] while taut is [taʊ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

take is recorded at frequency rank #8,953, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈtakə]. taut is at rank #49,293, tagged as averb, pronounced [taʊ̯t].

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 58246, this pair ranks #870,198 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of take vs taut

Shared letters: at. Private to "take": ek. Private to "taut": u.

"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "taut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taketaek · takke · tkae · ttake
  • tautatut · tatu · tautt · ttaut · tuat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "take" and "taut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "take" is an adjective and "taut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "take" or "taut"?
"take" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,953 in our German list, against #49,293 for "taut". 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 "take" and "taut". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "take" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "taut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #870,198 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "take" and "taut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taft vs taut". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list