PauvsunsernConfusable pair

Quick tell: Pau is a name, unsern is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pau” is a name and “unsern” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,946
“Pau” frequency rank
#24,966
“unsern” frequency rank
74912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pau unsern
Definition Stadt in Südfrankreich Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum attributiv des Pronomens unser

Letter map: Pau vs unsern

Shared letters muted; letters that set Pau and unsern apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. Pau runs 3 letters (CVV) against unsern's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Pau
6 ch
unsern

Grammar separator: Pau vs unsern

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Pau is aname and unsernadeterminer. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pau is recorded at frequency rank #49,946, classified as aname, pronounced […]. unsern is at rank #24,966, tagged as adet, pronounced […].

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 74912, this pair ranks #321,217 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Pau vs unsern

Shared letters: u. Private to "Pau": ap. Private to "unsern": enrs.

"Pau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "unsern" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unsern ← nusern · unesrn · unnsern · unsenr · unsernn · unserrn · unsren · unssern

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Pau" for "unsern" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pau" is a name and "unsern" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pau" or "unsern"?
"unsern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,966 in our German list, against #49,946 for "Pau". 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 "Pau" and "unsern".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "unsern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,217 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pau" and "unsern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pau vs puzzles". 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 #321,217 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