gangsvsGänseWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,596
“gangs” frequency rank
#25,160
“Gänse” frequency rank
58756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gangs Gänse
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs gang Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Gans

Letter map: gangs vs Gänse

Shared letters muted; letters that set gangs and Gänse apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. gangs (CVCCC) and Gänse (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
gangs
5 ch
Gänse

Part-of-speech tell for gangs / Gänse

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gangs is averb and Gänseanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gangs is recorded at frequency rank #33,596, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Gänse is at rank #25,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɡɛnzə].

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 58756, this pair ranks #850,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gangs vs Gänse

Shared letters: gns. Private to "gangs": a. Private to "Gänse": eä.

"gangs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Gänse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gangs ← agngs · gagns · ganggs · gangss · ganngs · gansg · ggangs · gnags

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gangs" and "Gänse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gangs" is a verb and "Gänse" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gangs" or "Gänse" show up more?
"Gänse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,160 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.

What to do next

You've compared "gangs" and "Gänse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gangs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gänse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #850,501 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gangs" and "Gänse" 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 #850,501 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