TogovsTorTell them apart

Quick tell: Togo is a name, Tor is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Togo” is a name and “Tor” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,063
“Togo” frequency rank
#1,373
“Tor” frequency rank
37436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Togo Tor
Definition Land in Westafrika großer Zugang, großer Durchgang; bewegliches Bauteil, mit dem dieser Zugang geöffnet und geschlossen werden kann; Bauwerk, das einen Durchgang umschließt, meist als Bestandteil eines Eigennamens

Where the eye mixes Togo and Tor

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

4 ch
Togo
3 ch
Tor

Why the eye confuses Togo with Tor

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Togo is [ˈtoːɡo] while Tor is [toːɐ̯]. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Togo is recorded at frequency rank #36,063, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈtoːɡo]. Tor is at rank #1,373, tagged as anoun, pronounced [toːɐ̯].

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 37436, this pair ranks #1,590,285 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Togo vs Tor

Shared letters: ot. Private to "Togo": g. Private to "Tor": r.

"Togo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Tor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Togootgo · tgoo · toggo · toog · ttogo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Togo" for "Tor" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Togo" is a name and "Tor" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Togo" or "Tor" show up more?
"Tor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,373 in our German list, against #36,063 for "Togo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Togo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,590,285 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Togo" and "Tor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Togo vs Tons". 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 #1,590,285 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