groundvsgroupsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#26,904
“ground” frequency rank
#38,155
“groups” frequency rank
65059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ground groups
Definition am Boden festhalten Plural des Substantivs group

Letter map: ground vs groups

Shared letters muted; letters that set ground and groups apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
ground
6 ch
groups

Grammar separator: ground vs groups

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ground is averb and groupsanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ground is recorded at frequency rank #26,904, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡraʊnd]. groups is at rank #38,155, 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 65059, this pair ranks #619,937 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ground vs groups

Shared letters: goru. Private to "ground": dn. Private to "groups": ps.

"ground" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "groups" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • groundgground · gorund · gronud · groudn · groundd · grounnd · grround · gruond
  • groupsggroups · gorups · gropus · groupps · groupss · grousp · grroups · gruops

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ground" and "groups" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ground" is a verb and "groups" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ground" or "groups" show up more?
"ground" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,904 in our German list, against #38,155 for "groups". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ground" and "groups".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ground" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "groups" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #619,937 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ground" and "groups" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "groups 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 #619,937 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