anythingvsofWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: anything is a pronoun, of is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“anything” is a pronoun and “of” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,360
“anything” frequency rank
#324
“of” frequency rank
37684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anything of
Definition irgendwas, irgendetwas von

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set anything and of apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.

8 ch
anything
2 ch
of

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: anything is apronoun and ofapreposition. On the page they differ by 6 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anything is recorded at frequency rank #37,360, classified as apron, pronounced […]. of is at rank #324, tagged as aprep, 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 37684, this pair ranks #1,583,771 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of anything vs of

Shared letters: none. Private to "anything": aghinty. Private to "of": fo.

"anything" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC  ·  "of" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anythingannything · antyhing · anyhting · anythhing · anythign · anythingg · anythinng · anythnig

Frequency comparison

anything#37,360
of#324

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "anything" and "of" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "anything" is a pronoun and "of" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "anything" or "of"?
"of" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #324 in our German list, against #37,360 for "anything". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering anything vs of

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “anything”; for a preposition, it's “of”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “anything” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

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