ObvsonuConfusable pair

Quick tell: Ob is a name, onu is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ob” is a name and “onu” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,155
“Ob” frequency rank
#4,259
“onu” frequency rank
35414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ob onu
Definition Fleuve de Sibérie, qui se jette dans l’océan Arctique. Accusatif de o.

Letter map: Ob vs onu

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ob and onu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
Ob
3 ch
onu

Part-of-speech tell for Ob / onu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ob is aname and onuapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ob is recorded at frequency rank #31,155, classified as aname. onu is at rank #4,259, tagged as apron, pronounced \o.ˈnu\.

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 35414, this pair ranks #276,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ob vs onu

Shared letters: o. Private to "Ob": b. Private to "onu": nu.

"Ob" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "onu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ob" for "onu" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ob" is a name and "onu" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Ob" vs "onu" - which ranks higher?
"onu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,259 in our French list, against #31,155 for "Ob". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Ob" vs "onu" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "onu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ob" and "onu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ob vs och". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #276,931 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list