nollvsnosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: noll is a num, nos is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“noll” is a num and “nos” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,379
“noll” frequency rank
#27,872
“nos” frequency rank
71251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noll nos
Definition null für die 1. Person, Plural, Nominativ (Subjektfall); wir

Letter map: noll vs nos

Shared letters muted; letters that set noll and nos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. noll runs 4 letters (CVCC) against nos's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
noll
3 ch
nos

Grammar separator: noll vs nos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: noll is anum and nosapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noll is recorded at frequency rank #43,379, classified as anum, pronounced [nɔl]. nos is at rank #27,872, tagged as apron, 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 71251, this pair ranks #422,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of noll vs nos

Shared letters: no. Private to "noll": l. Private to "nos": s.

"noll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • noll ← nlol · nnoll · nol · onll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "noll" for "nos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "noll" is a num and "nos" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "noll" or "nos" show up more?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,872 in our German list, against #43,379 for "noll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "noll" vs "nos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noll" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noll" and "nos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noll vs nox". 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 #422,208 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