granvshanksWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gran is a adjective, hanks is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gran” is an adjective and “hanks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,386
“gran” frequency rank
#36,977
“hanks” frequency rank
50363
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gran hanks
Definition groß, hochgewachsen Plural des Substantivs hank

Letter map: gran vs hanks

Shared letters muted; letters that set gran and hanks apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. gran runs 4 letters (CCVC) against hanks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gran
5 ch
hanks

Role in the sentence - gran and hanks

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gran is anadjective and hanksanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gran is recorded at frequency rank #13,386, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. hanks is at rank #36,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 50363, this pair ranks #1,176,515 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gran vs hanks

Shared letters: an. Private to "gran": gr. Private to "hanks": hks.

"gran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "hanks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gran ← ggran · grann · grna · grran · rgan
  • hanks ← ahnks · hakns · hankks · hankss · hannks · hansk · hhanks · hnaks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gran" and "hanks" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gran" is an adjective and "hanks" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gran" or "hanks"?
"gran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,386 in our German list, against #36,977 for "hanks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "gran" vs "hanks" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hanks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,176,515 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gran" and "hanks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hanks 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 #1,176,515 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