A: The two keywords to remember here are 'hiding' & 'invisible'.
THE SIMILARITY:
In both cases, the Audience doesn't get to see the Character/Person they are hearing.
THE DIFFERENCE:
Off-screen:
In case of Off-screen, the character that is speaking will be physically present in the scene,
but won't be visible in the frame(hiding).
e.g.
Imagine this scene.
Arun & Bhanu are a live-in couple. One Friday morning, Bhanu gets up from the bed only to realise she has overslept. She hurries to the bathroom, but finds the bathroom door locked from inside. Arun seems to have occupied the bathroom. This is how the conversation goes.
BHANU
(yelling)
What are you doing in there?
ARUN(O.S.)
I'm showering.
BHANU
How long will it take?
ARUN(O.S.)
Two more minutes.
BHANU
Make it fast! I'm getting late for work.
TIME LAPSE- 10 minutes passes on the clock.
Dressed up in a towel, Arun walks out of the Shower.
BHANU
What took you so long?
ARUN
Sorry about that! Don't worry, i will drop you at work.
BHANU
You have to! I will not make it to the meeting on time if you don't.
Bhanu pushes Arun aside and hastily gets in to the bathroom, shutting the door on Arun's face.
-END-
In the above scene, right from the beginning, the camera stays with BHANU in the bedroom and we do not get to see ARUN who is inside the bathroom, but we hear him talk. Even though ARUN is physically present in the scene, he is not visible in the frame. So the dialogue ARUN speaks while he's inside the bathroom is denoted with the acronym (O.S.) which stands for 'Off-screen'.
The moment he comes out of the bathroom and we see him in the frame, he is not Off-screen anymore and hence dialogue spoken by him in the later part doesn't have an (O.S.) against his Character.
As simple as that!
Voice over:
But in a voice over, the character will not be physically present in the scene, yet we hear their voice(invisible).
e.g.
In the below scene from the movie BOYS(2003), we hear Director Shankar introducing all the male leads in this movie of his, but we do not get to see the Director himself. This is a perfect example for a Voice over.
BOYS(2003)
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