gangsvsGansTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,596
“gangs” frequency rank
#16,997
“Gans” frequency rank
50593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gangs Gans
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs gang eine ganze Reihe von nicht unmittelbar verwandten Gattungen der Gänsevögel (Halslänge zwischen Ente und Schwan, Beine nicht ganz so kurz wie bei den Enten)

Letter map: gangs vs Gans

Shared letters muted; letters that set gangs and Gans apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. gangs runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against Gans's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
gangs
4 ch
Gans

Part-of-speech tell for gangs / Gans

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gangs is averb and Gansanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gangs is recorded at frequency rank #33,596, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Gans is at rank #16,997, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡans].

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 50593, this pair ranks #1,167,794 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gangs vs Gans

Shared letters: agns. Private to "gangs": -. Private to "Gans": -.

"gangs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Gans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gangs ← agngs · gagns · ganggs · gangss · ganngs · gansg · ggangs · gnags
  • Gans ← agns · ganns · ganss · gasn · ggans · gnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gangs" and "Gans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gangs" is a verb and "Gans" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gangs" vs "Gans" - which ranks higher?
"Gans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,997 in our German list, against #33,596 for "gangs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "gangs" and "Gans".

  • Full dictionary entry for "gangs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,167,794 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gangs" and "Gans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gangs vs puzzles". 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 #1,167,794 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