though vs tough, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“though” is an adverb and “tough” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,539
“though” frequency rank: #43,540
“tough” frequency rank: 92079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	though	tough
Definition	dennoch, trotzdem	robust, widerstandsfähig

Letter map: though vs tough

Shared letters muted; letters that set though and tough apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch

though

5 ch

tough

Grammar separator: though vs tough

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: though is anadverb and toughanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

though is recorded at frequency rank #48,539, classified as anadv, pronounced […]. tough is at rank #43,540, tagged as anadj, pronounced [taf].

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 92079, this pair ranks #32,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of though vs tough

Shared letters: ghotu. Private to "though": -. Private to "tough": -.

"though" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "tough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

though ← htough · thhough · thoguh · thouggh · thoughh · thouhg · thuogh · tohugh
tough ← otugh · toguh · touggh · toughh · touhg · ttough · tuogh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "though" for "tough" ever safe?

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

Frequency check: "though" vs "tough" - which ranks higher?

"tough" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,540 in our German list, against #48,539 for "though". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "though" and "tough".

Full dictionary entry for "though" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "tough" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #32,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"though" and "tough" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs though". 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 #32,625 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.