bohnvsboysWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bohn is a verb, boys is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bohn” is a verb and “boys” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,253
“bohn” frequency rank
#7,299
“boys” frequency rank
46552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bohn boys
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bohnen Plural des Substantivs boy

Where the eye mixes bohn and boys

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

4 ch
bohn
4 ch
boys

Visual trap between bohn and boys

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bohn is [boːn] while boys is [bɔɪz]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bohn is recorded at frequency rank #39,253, classified as averb, pronounced [boːn]. boys is at rank #7,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bɔɪz].

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 46552, this pair ranks #1,315,153 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bohn vs boys

Shared letters: bo. Private to "bohn": hn. Private to "boys": sy.

"bohn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "boys" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bohnbbohn · bhon · bohhn · bohnn · bonh · obhn
  • boysbboys · bosy · boyss · boyys · byos · obys

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bohn" and "boys" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bohn" is a verb and "boys" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bohn" vs "boys" - which ranks higher?
"boys" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,299 in our German list, against #39,253 for "bohn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bohn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,315,153 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bohn" and "boys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bohn vs brun". 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 #1,315,153 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