vasvsvonTell them apart

Quick tell: vas is a verb, von is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vas” is a verb and “von” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,809
“vas” frequency rank
#11
“von” frequency rank
47820
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vas von
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs aller Ursprung räumlicher oder zeitlicher Veränderung, Herkunft, Gegenstand der Betrachtung, Ursache, sonstige Verhältnisse

Where the eye mixes vas and von

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

3 ch
vas
3 ch
von

Visual trap between vas and von

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vas is [va] while von is [fɔn]. 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 (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vas is recorded at frequency rank #47,809, classified as averb, pronounced [va]. von is at rank #11, tagged as aprep, pronounced [fɔn].

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 47820, this pair ranks #1,270,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vas vs von

Shared letters: v. Private to "vas": as. Private to "von": no.

"vas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "von" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vas" and "von" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vas" is a verb and "von" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "vas" vs "von" - which ranks higher?
"von" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11 in our German list, against #47,809 for "vas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "von" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,270,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vas" and "von" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vas vs VN". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,270,776 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