Which to use
“told” is a verb and “Tor” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,284
- “told” frequency rank
- #1,373
- “Tor” frequency rank
- 45657
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | Tor |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs tell | 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 told and Tor
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses told with Tor
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: told is [təʊld] 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
told is recorded at frequency rank #44,284, classified as averb, pronounced [təʊld]. 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 45657, this pair ranks #1,345,543 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of told vs Tor
Shared letters: ot. Private to "told": dl. Private to "Tor": r.
"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Tor" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- told ← otld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "told" and "Tor" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "told" or "Tor" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "told" 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 #1,345,543 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "told" and "Tor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "told 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 #1,345,543 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.