tautvstuiWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,293
“taut” frequency rank
#18,731
“tui” frequency rank
68024
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taut tui
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs tauen deine, die Deinen/Deinigen mit Bezug auf mehrere vorher erwähnte Objekte oder Personen

Where the eye mixes taut and tui

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

4 ch
taut
3 ch
tui

Visual trap between taut and tui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: taut is [taʊ̯t] while tui is [ˈtuʔi]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68024, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taut is recorded at frequency rank #49,293, classified as averb, pronounced [taʊ̯t]. tui is at rank #18,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈtuʔi].

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 68024, this pair ranks #521,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of taut vs tui

Shared letters: tu. Private to "taut": a. Private to "tui": i.

"taut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "tui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tautatut · tatu · tautt · ttaut · tuat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "taut" and "tui" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taut" is a verb and "tui" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "taut" vs "tui" - which ranks higher?
"tui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,731 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "taut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #521,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taut" and "tui" 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

Confusion rank #521,152 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