nosvsnousWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,872
“nos” frequency rank
#37,704
“nous” frequency rank
65576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: nos vs nous

Shared letters muted; letters that set nos and nous apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
nos
4 ch
nous

Pair insight - nos / nous

nos and nous are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nos is recorded at frequency rank #27,872, classified as apron, pronounced […]. nous is at rank #37,704, tagged as apron, pronounced [nu].

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 65576, this pair ranks #602,066 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nos vs nous

Shared letters: nos. Private to "nos": -. Private to "nous": u.

"nos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nousnnous · nosu · nouss · nuos · onus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nos" and "nous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "nos" or "nous" show up more?
"nos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,872 in our German list, against #37,704 for "nous". 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 "nos" and "nous".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #602,066 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nos" and "nous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nous 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 #602,066 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