ab und zu
[ap ʊnt t͡suː]
The verdict
“ab und zu” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - mehr oder weniger oft, unterschiedlich häufig
Corpus desk
Index DE-ab-und-zu · ab und zu · German
ab und zu · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ab und zu |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [ap ʊnt t͡suː] |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „ab und zu“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
ab und zu is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed [ap ʊnt t͡suː]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
ab und zu has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular German conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is ab und zu, spelled A-B- -U-N-D- -Z-U.
Definition
- 1mehr oder weniger oft, unterschiedlich häufig
- 2weg und wieder herbei; aus und ein
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ab und zu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ich bin kein Profifußballspieler, ich spiele nur ab und zu Fußball.
„Draußen auf dem See suchte der Scheinwerfer des Wachbootes die Berge ab und schoß ab und zu in den Garten unten, wie ein Eindringling, zwischen die Bäume …“
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.