scansvsSpassWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,182
“scans” frequency rank
#524
“Spass” frequency rank
37706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scans Spass
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scan Spaß

Letter map: scans vs Spass

Shared letters muted; letters that set scans and Spass apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
scans
5 ch
Spass

Part-of-speech tell for scans / Spass

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: scans is averb and Spassanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scans is recorded at frequency rank #37,182, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Spass is at rank #524, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃpaːs].

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 37706, this pair ranks #1,583,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of scans vs Spass

Shared letters: as. Private to "scans": cn. Private to "Spass": p.

"scans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "Spass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scanscsans · sacns · scanns · scanss · scasn · sccans · scnas · sscans
  • Spasspsass · sapss · spas · spaß · sppass · spsas · sspass

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "scans" and "Spass" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "scans" is a verb and "Spass" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "scans" or "Spass"?
"Spass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #524 in our German list, against #37,182 for "scans". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "scans" and "Spass".

  • Full dictionary entry for "scans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Spass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,583,190 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scans" and "Spass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs scans". 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 #1,583,190 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