ohnevsöleWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#111
“ohne” frequency rank
#24,222
“öle” frequency rank
24333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ohne öle
Definition etwas oder jemanden ausschließend 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs ölen

Where the eye mixes ohne and öle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
ohne
3 ch
öle

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ohne is [ˈoːnə] while öle is [ˈøːlə]. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ohne is recorded at frequency rank #111, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈoːnə]. öle is at rank #24,222, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈøːlə].

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 24333, this pair ranks #1,849,088 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ohne vs öle

Shared letters: e. Private to "ohne": hno. Private to "öle": .

"ohne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "öle" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ohnehone · ohen · ohhne · ohnne · onhe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ohne" and "öle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ohne" is a preposition and "öle" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ohne" or "öle"?
"ohne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #111 in our German list, against #24,222 for "öle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ohne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "öle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,849,088 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ohne" and "öle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OGH vs öle". 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