usvsUsusTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#438
“us” frequency rank
#41,528
“Usus” frequency rank
41966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature us Usus
Definition uns das, was üblich ist

Where the eye mixes us and Usus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
us
4 ch
Usus

Look-alike desk: us vs Usus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: us is [ʌs] while Usus is [ˈuːzʊs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “us” sits inside “Usus”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

us is recorded at frequency rank #438, classified as apron, pronounced [ʌs]. Usus is at rank #41,528, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈuːzʊs].

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 41966, this pair ranks #1,463,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of us vs Usus

Shared letters: su. Private to "us": -. Private to "Usus": -.

"us" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "Usus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Usussuus · ussu · ussus · ususs · uuss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "us" and "Usus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "us" is a pronoun and "Usus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "us" or "Usus"?
"us" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #438 in our German list, against #41,528 for "Usus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "us" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Usus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,463,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "us" and "Usus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "USK vs Usus". 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 #1,463,655 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