Which to use
“Sohn” is a noun and “son” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #523
- “Sohn” frequency rank
- #5,881
- “son” frequency rank
- 6404
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Sohn | son |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | männlicher, direkter Nachkomme | umgangssprachlich: |
Same sound, different letters: Sohn vs son
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - Sohn and son
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Sohn and son carry the same recorded pronunciation, [zoːn]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other adeterminer, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Sohn is recorded at frequency rank #523, classified as anoun, pronounced [zoːn]. son is at rank #5,881, tagged as adet, pronounced [zoːn].
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 6404, this pair ranks #1,991,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Sohn vs son
Shared letters: nos. Private to "Sohn": h. Private to "son": -.
"Sohn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "son" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Sohn ← oshn · shon · sohhn · sohnn · sonh · ssohn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Sohn" and "son" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "Sohn" or "son" show up more?
What to do next
"Sohn" and "son" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "Sohn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "son" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,991,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Sohn" and "son" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs son". 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 #1,991,757 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.