onsvsoxConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#30,227
“ons” frequency rank
#44,121
“ox” frequency rank
74348
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ons ox
Definition Erste Person plural : unser der Ochse

Letter map: ons vs ox

Shared letters muted; letters that set ons and ox apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ons
2 ch
ox

Part-of-speech tell for ons / ox

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ons is apronoun and oxanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ons is recorded at frequency rank #30,227, classified as apron. ox is at rank #44,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɒks].

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 74348, this pair ranks #335,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ons vs ox

Shared letters: o. Private to "ons": ns. Private to "ox": x.

"ons" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ox" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ons" and "ox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ons" is a pronoun and "ox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ons" or "ox" show up more?
"ons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,227 in our German list, against #44,121 for "ox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ons" vs "ox" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ons" and "ox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OGH vs ox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #335,863 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