ansvsavisConfusable pair

Quick tell: ans is a abbrev, avis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ans” is an abbrev and “avis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,467
“ans” frequency rank
#48,746
“avis” frequency rank
50213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ans avis
Definition an das das, was man über etwas denkt; Ansicht, Meinung

Where the eye mixes ans and avis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ans
4 ch
avis

Visual trap between ans and avis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ans is [ans] while avis is [avi]. 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 (abbrev vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ans is recorded at frequency rank #1,467, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [ans]. avis is at rank #48,746, tagged as anoun, pronounced [avi].

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 50213, this pair ranks #1,182,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ans vs avis

Shared letters: as. Private to "ans": n. Private to "avis": iv.

"ans" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "avis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avisaivs · aviss · avsi · avvis · vais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ans" and "avis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ans" is an abbrev and "avis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ans" or "avis" show up more?
"ans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,467 in our German list, against #48,746 for "avis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,182,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ans" and "avis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ages vs avis". 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 #1,182,275 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