UhuvsunsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#38,464
“Uhu” frequency rank
#85
“uns” frequency rank
38549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Uhu uns
Definition größte, in der Dämmerung jagende Eule, speziell der Eurasische Uhu , mit auffälligen Federohren, orangeroten Augen und dunkelbraun geflecktem Gefieder, die in waldigen Vorgebirgen lebt Personalpronomen 1. Person Plural Dativ

Where the eye mixes Uhu and uns

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

3 ch
Uhu
3 ch
uns

Look-alike desk: Uhu vs uns

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Uhu is [ˈuːhu] 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 38549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Uhu is recorded at frequency rank #38,464, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈuːhu]. 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 38549, this pair ranks #1,561,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Uhu vs uns

Shared letters: u. Private to "Uhu": h. Private to "uns": ns.

"Uhu" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "uns" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Uhu" and "uns" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Uhu" is a noun and "uns" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Uhu" vs "uns" - which ranks higher?
"uns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #85 in our German list, against #38,464 for "Uhu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Uhu" 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 #1,561,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Uhu" and "uns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "uch vs Uhu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,561,004 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