govsgodsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#3,193
“go” frequency rank
#40,572
“gods” frequency rank
43765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature go gods
Definition gehen, sich fortbewegen: gehen, fahren, fliegen… Plural des Substantivs god

Where the eye mixes go and gods

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

2 ch
go
4 ch
gods

Visual trap between go and gods

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: go is [ɡəʊ] while gods is [ɡɒdz]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “go” sits inside “gods”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

go is recorded at frequency rank #3,193, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəʊ]. gods is at rank #40,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡɒdz].

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 43765, this pair ranks #1,407,681 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of go vs gods

Shared letters: go. Private to "go": -. Private to "gods": ds.

"go" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "gods" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • godsgdos · ggods · godds · godss · gosd · ogds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "go" for "gods" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "go" is a verb and "gods" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "go" or "gods" show up more?
"go" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,193 in our German list, against #40,572 for "gods". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "go" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gods" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,407,681 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "go" and "gods" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Goch vs gods". 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 #1,407,681 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