Deutsch homophones

Sohn/son

"Sohn" is a noun; "son" is a determiner - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #38 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "Sohn" arrives as a noun, while "son" is a determiner. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "so" then splits - "Sohn" (4 letters) vs "son" (3).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Sohn, son: nos. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Sohn

    4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC

    Inventory hnos · private h

  • son

    3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC

    Inventory nos · no private letters vs siblings

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Sohn" when you mean: männlicher, direkter Nachkomme
  • Write "son" when you mean: umgangssprachlich:

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • Sohnoshn · shon · sohhn · sohnn · sonh · ssohn

Each spelling

Sohn

noun · /zoːn/ · #523 frequency

männlicher, direkter Nachkomme

son

determiner · /zoːn/ · #5,881 frequency

umgangssprachlich:

Nearby German homophone groups

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list