govsgossTell them apart

Which to use

“go” and “goss” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,193
“go” frequency rank
#34,706
“goss” frequency rank
37899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature go goss
Definition gehen, sich fortbewegen: gehen, fahren, fliegen… 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs gießen

Where the eye mixes go and goss

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

2 ch
go
4 ch
goss

Visual trap between go and goss

A purely visual mix-up. go ([ɡəʊ]) and goss ([ɡɔs]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “go” sits inside “goss”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37899, 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]. goss is at rank #34,706, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡɔs].

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 37899, this pair ranks #1,578,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of go vs goss

Shared letters: go. Private to "go": -. Private to "goss": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gossggoss · gos · goß · gsos · ogss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "go" and "goss" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəʊ] versus [ɡɔs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "go" or "goss" show up more?
"go" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,193 in our German list, against #34,706 for "goss". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "go" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "goss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,578,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "go" and "goss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Goch vs goss". 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 #1,578,159 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