OhrenvsollenConfusable pair

Quick tell: Ohren is a noun, ollen is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ohren” is a noun and “ollen” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,778
“Ohren” frequency rank
#36,536
“ollen” frequency rank
39314
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ohren ollen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Ohr Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs oll

Where the eye mixes Ohren and ollen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Ohren
5 ch
ollen

Why the eye confuses Ohren with ollen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ohren is [ˈoːʁən] while ollen is [ˈɔlən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39314, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ohren is recorded at frequency rank #2,778, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈoːʁən]. ollen is at rank #36,536, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɔlən].

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 39314, this pair ranks #1,540,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ohren vs ollen

Shared letters: eno. Private to "Ohren": hr. Private to "ollen": l.

"Ohren" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "ollen" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ohrenhoren · ohern · ohhren · ohrenn · ohrne · ohrren · orhen
  • ollenlolen · oleln · olen · ollenn · ollne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ohren" and "ollen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ohren" is a noun and "ollen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ohren" or "ollen" show up more?
"Ohren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,778 in our German list, against #36,536 for "ollen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ohren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ollen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,540,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ohren" and "ollen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Oasen vs ollen". 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 #1,540,174 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