Which to use
“told” is a verb and “toy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,284
- “told” frequency rank
- #29,819
- “toy” frequency rank
- 74103
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | told | toy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs tell | Spielzeug |
Letter map: told vs toy
Shared letters muted; letters that set told and toy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: told vs toy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: told is averb and toyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74103, 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]. toy is at rank #29,819, tagged as anoun, 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 74103, this pair ranks #342,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of told vs toy
Shared letters: ot. Private to "told": dl. Private to "toy": y.
"told" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "toy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- told ← otld · tlod · todl · toldd · tolld · ttold
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "told" and "toy" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "told" vs "toy" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "told" vs "toy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "told" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "told" and "toy" 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 #342,325 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.