UhrvsunsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#200
“Uhr” frequency rank
#85
“uns” frequency rank
285
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Uhr uns
Definition Instrument zur Messung der Zeit, Chronometer Personalpronomen 1. Person Plural Dativ

Where the eye mixes Uhr and uns

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
Uhr
3 ch
uns

Look-alike desk: Uhr vs uns

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Uhr is [uːɐ̯] while uns is [ʊns]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Uhr is recorded at frequency rank #200, classified as anoun, pronounced [uːɐ̯]. uns is at rank #85, tagged as apron, pronounced [ʊns].

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 285, this pair ranks #2,006,045 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Uhr vs uns

Shared letters: u. Private to "Uhr": hr. Private to "uns": ns.

"Uhr" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "uns" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Uhr" and "uns" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Uhr" is a noun and "uns" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Uhr" or "uns" show up more?
"uns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #85 in our German list, against #200 for "Uhr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Uhr" and "uns" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Uhr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "uns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,006,045 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Uhr" and "uns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "uns vs Unze". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,006,045 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