uivsusTell them apart

Quick tell: ui is a intj, us is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ui” is an intj and “us” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,713
“ui” frequency rank
#438
“us” frequency rank
14151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ui us
Definition Ausdruck des Bestaunens uns

Where the eye mixes ui and us

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

2 ch
ui
2 ch
us

Why the eye confuses ui with us

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ui is [ʊɪ̯] while us is [ʌs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “ui” becomes s in “us”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ui is recorded at frequency rank #13,713, classified as anintj, pronounced [ʊɪ̯]. us is at rank #438, tagged as apron, pronounced [ʌs].

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 14151, this pair ranks #1,953,211 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ui vs us

Shared letters: u. Private to "ui": i. Private to "us": s.

"ui" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "us" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ui" and "us" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ui" is an intj and "us" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ui" or "us" show up more?
"us" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #438 in our German list, against #13,713 for "ui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "us" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,953,211 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ui" and "us" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "uch vs ui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,953,211 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