plansvsponsConfusable pair

Quick tell: plans is a verb, pons is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“plans” is a verb and “pons” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,673
“plans” frequency rank
#44,143
“pons” frequency rank
63816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plans pons
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs plan Brücke, Steg über einen Fluss, Morast oder Ähnliches

Letter map: plans vs pons

Shared letters muted; letters that set plans and pons apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
plans
4 ch
pons

Role in the sentence - plans and pons

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: plans is averb and ponsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plans is recorded at frequency rank #19,673, classified as averb, pronounced […]. pons is at rank #44,143, tagged as anoun, 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 63816, this pair ranks #663,324 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plans vs pons

Shared letters: nps. Private to "plans": al. Private to "pons": o.

"plans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "pons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planslpans · palns · planns · planss · plasn · pllans · plnas · pplans
  • ponsopns · pnos · ponns · ponss · posn · ppons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "plans" for "pons" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plans" is a verb and "pons" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "plans" or "pons"?
"plans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,673 in our German list, against #44,143 for "pons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "plans" vs "pons" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #663,324 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plans" and "pons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pons 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 #663,324 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