granvsNikolaiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gran is a adjective, Nikolai is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gran” is an adjective and “Nikolai” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,386
“gran” frequency rank
#21,009
“Nikolai” frequency rank
34395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gran Nikolai
Definition groß, hochgewachsen männlicher Vorname

Letter map: gran vs Nikolai

Shared letters muted; letters that set gran and Nikolai apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. gran runs 4 letters (CCVC) against Nikolai's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gran
7 ch
Nikolai

Role in the sentence - gran and Nikolai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gran is anadjective and Nikolaianame. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gran is recorded at frequency rank #13,386, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. Nikolai is at rank #21,009, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 34395, this pair ranks #1,664,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gran vs Nikolai

Shared letters: an. Private to "gran": gr. Private to "Nikolai": iklo.

"gran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Nikolai" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • granggran · grann · grna · grran · rgan
  • Nikolaiinkolai · nikkolai · nikloai · nikoali · nikolia · nikollai · nioklai · nkiolai

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gran" and "Nikolai" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gran" is an adjective and "Nikolai" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "gran" or "Nikolai" show up more?
"gran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,386 in our German list, against #21,009 for "Nikolai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "gran" and "Nikolai".

  • Full dictionary entry for "gran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Nikolai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,664,300 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gran" and "Nikolai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nikolai vs puzzles". 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 #1,664,300 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