nousvsNSUWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nous is a pronoun, NSU is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nous” is a pronoun and “NSU” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,704
“nous” frequency rank
#6,456
“NSU” frequency rank
44160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nous NSU
Definition wir Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund: rechtsextreme terroristische Vereinigung

Letter map: nous vs NSU

Shared letters muted; letters that set nous and NSU apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
nous
3 ch
NSU

Part-of-speech tell for nous / NSU

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nous is apronoun and NSUanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nous is recorded at frequency rank #37,704, classified as apron, pronounced [nu]. NSU is at rank #6,456, tagged as anabbrev, 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 44160, this pair ranks #1,395,051 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nous vs NSU

Shared letters: nsu. Private to "nous": o. Private to "NSU": -.

"nous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "NSU" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nousnnous · nosu · nouss · nuos · onus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nous" for "NSU" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nous" is a pronoun and "NSU" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nous" or "NSU"?
"NSU" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,456 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.

After this comparison

Pair "nous" vs "NSU" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "NSU" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,395,051 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nous" and "NSU" 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 #1,395,051 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