TOvswritingConfusable pair

Quick tell: TO is a abbrev, writing is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#589
“TO” frequency rank
#32,876
“writing” frequency rank
33465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature TO writing
Definition KFZ-Kennzeichen für Torino (Turin) Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs write

Letter map: TO vs writing

Shared letters muted; letters that set TO and writing apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
TO
7 ch
writing

Grammar separator: TO vs writing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: TO is anabbrev and writingaverb. On the page they differ by 5 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

TO is recorded at frequency rank #589, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. writing is at rank #32,876, tagged as averb, 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 33465, this pair ranks #1,685,439 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of TO vs writing

Shared letters: t. Private to "TO": o. Private to "writing": ginrw.

"TO" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "writing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • writingrwiting · wirting · wriitng · writign · writingg · writinng · writnig · writting

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "TO" and "writing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "TO" is an abbrev and "writing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "TO" vs "writing" - which ranks higher?
"TO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our German list, against #32,876 for "writing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "TO" and "writing".

  • Full dictionary entry for "TO" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "writing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,685,439 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "TO" and "writing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs writing". 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 #1,685,439 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