obivsoftWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: obi is a verb, oft is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“obi” is a verb and “oft” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,996
“obi” frequency rank
#310
“oft” frequency rank
19306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obi oft
Definition Imperativ Singular des Verbs obire viele Male (zu verschiedenen Zeiten)

Letter map: obi vs oft

Shared letters muted; letters that set obi and oft apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
obi
3 ch
oft

Role in the sentence - obi and oft

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: obi is averb and oftanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obi is recorded at frequency rank #18,996, classified as averb, pronounced […]. oft is at rank #310, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ɔft].

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 19306, this pair ranks #1,909,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of obi vs oft

Shared letters: o. Private to "obi": bi. Private to "oft": ft.

"obi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "oft" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "obi" for "oft" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obi" is a verb and "oft" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "obi" or "oft" show up more?
"oft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #310 in our German list, against #18,996 for "obi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "obi" and "oft". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "oft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,909,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obi" and "oft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obi vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,909,757 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