ObstvsonsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Obst is a noun, ons is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,545
“Obst” frequency rank
#30,227
“ons” frequency rank
34772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Obst ons
Definition roh essbare, meist saftige Früchte, die von Bäumen, Sträuchern und mehrjährigen Stauden stammen, mit überwiegend süßlichem oder säuerlichem, „fruchtigem“ Geschmack Erste Person plural : unser

Letter map: Obst vs ons

Shared letters muted; letters that set Obst and ons apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Obst
3 ch
ons

Role in the sentence - Obst and ons

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Obst is anoun and onsapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34772, 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]. ons is at rank #30,227, tagged as apron.

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 34772, this pair ranks #1,655,643 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Obst vs ons

Shared letters: os. Private to "Obst": bt. Private to "ons": n.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Obst" for "ons" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Obst" is a noun and "ons" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Obst" or "ons"?
"Obst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,545 in our German list, against #30,227 for "ons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Obst" and "ons". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Obst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,655,643 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Obst" and "ons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OGH vs ons". 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 #1,655,643 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