Which to use
“Gans” and “guns” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,997
- “Gans” frequency rank
- #34,148
- “guns” frequency rank
- 51145
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Gans | guns |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine ganze Reihe von nicht unmittelbar verwandten Gattungen der Gänsevögel (Halslänge zwischen Ente und Schwan, Beine nicht ganz so kurz wie bei den Enten) | Plural des Substantivs gun |
Where the eye mixes Gans and guns
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Gans and guns follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Gans vs guns
A purely visual mix-up. Gans ([ɡans]) and guns ([ɡʌnz]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “Gans” becomes u in “guns”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Gans is recorded at frequency rank #16,997, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡans]. guns is at rank #34,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡʌnz].
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 51145, this pair ranks #1,146,747 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Gans vs guns
Shared letters: gns. Private to "Gans": a. Private to "guns": u.
"Gans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "guns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Gans" for "guns" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Gans" vs "guns" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Gans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "guns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,146,747 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Gans" and "guns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "geis vs guns". 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 #1,146,747 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.