onsvsORBConfusable pair

Quick tell: ons is a pronoun, ORB is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#30,227
“ons” frequency rank
#38,932
“ORB” frequency rank
69159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ons ORB
Definition Erste Person plural : unser Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg

Letter map: ons vs ORB

Shared letters muted; letters that set ons and ORB apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. ons and ORB follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
ons
3 ch
ORB

Part-of-speech tell for ons / ORB

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ons is apronoun and ORBanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ons is recorded at frequency rank #30,227, classified as apron. ORB is at rank #38,932, tagged as anabbrev.

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 69159, this pair ranks #485,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ons vs ORB

Shared letters: o. Private to "ons": ns. Private to "ORB": br.

"ons" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ORB" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ons" for "ORB" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ons" is a pronoun and "ORB" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ons" or "ORB"?
"ons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,227 in our German list, against #38,932 for "ORB". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ons" and "ORB".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ORB" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #485,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ons" and "ORB" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OGH vs ORB". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #485,197 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