ObstvsoftWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,545
“Obst” frequency rank
#310
“oft” frequency rank
4855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Obst oft
Definition roh essbare, meist saftige Früchte, die von Bäumen, Sträuchern und mehrjährigen Stauden stammen, mit überwiegend süßlichem oder säuerlichem, „fruchtigem“ Geschmack viele Male (zu verschiedenen Zeiten)

Where the eye mixes Obst and oft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Obst
3 ch
oft

Look-alike desk: Obst vs oft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Obst is [oːpst] while oft is [ɔft]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Obst is recorded at frequency rank #4,545, classified as anoun, pronounced [oːpst]. 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 4855, this pair ranks #1,996,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Obst vs oft

Shared letters: ot. Private to "Obst": bs. Private to "oft": f.

"Obst" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "oft" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Obstbost · obbst · obsst · obstt · obts · osbt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Obst" for "oft" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Obst" is a noun and "oft" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Obst" vs "oft" - which ranks higher?
"oft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #310 in our German list, against #4,545 for "Obst". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Obst" 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 #1,996,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Obst" and "oft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oft vs OGH". 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 #1,996,474 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