ohvsohneWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: oh is a intj, ohne is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“oh” is an intj and “ohne” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#507
“oh” frequency rank
#111
“ohne” frequency rank
618
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oh ohne
Definition Ausruf des Erstaunens, der Überraschung etwas oder jemanden ausschließend

Where the eye mixes oh and ohne

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

2 ch
oh
4 ch
ohne

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oh is [oː] while ohne is [ˈoːnə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “oh” sits inside “ohne”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oh is recorded at frequency rank #507, classified as anintj, pronounced [oː]. ohne is at rank #111, tagged as aprep, pronounced [ˈoːnə].

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 618, this pair ranks #2,005,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of oh vs ohne

Shared letters: ho. Private to "oh": -. Private to "ohne": en.

"oh" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ohne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ohnehone · ohen · ohhne · ohnne · onhe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oh" and "ohne" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oh" is an intj and "ohne" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "oh" or "ohne"?
"ohne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #111 in our German list, against #507 for "oh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "oh" and "ohne". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ohne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oh" and "ohne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OGH vs oh". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list