TogovstoughWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Togo is a name, tough is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#36,063
“Togo” frequency rank
#43,540
“tough” frequency rank
79603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Togo tough
Definition Land in Westafrika robust, widerstandsfähig

Where the eye mixes Togo and tough

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Togo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tough's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Togo
5 ch
tough

Look-alike desk: Togo vs tough

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Togo is [ˈtoːɡo] while tough is [taf]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79603, 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]. 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 79603, this pair ranks #213,034 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Togo vs tough

Shared letters: got. Private to "Togo": -. Private to "tough": hu.

"Togo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Togo ← otgo · tgoo · toggo · toog · ttogo
  • tough ← otugh · toguh · touggh · toughh · touhg · ttough · tuogh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Togo" and "tough" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Togo" is a name and "tough" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Togo" or "tough" show up more?
"Togo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,063 in our German list, against #43,540 for "tough". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Togo" and "tough" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Togo" 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 #213,034 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Togo" and "tough" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "though vs tough". 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 #213,034 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