marksvsNikolaiTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#25,230
“marks” frequency rank
#21,009
“Nikolai” frequency rank
46239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marks Nikolai
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs mark männlicher Vorname

Letter map: marks vs Nikolai

Shared letters muted; letters that set marks and Nikolai apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. marks runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against Nikolai's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
marks
7 ch
Nikolai

Role in the sentence - marks and Nikolai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: marks is averb and Nikolaianame. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marks is recorded at frequency rank #25,230, classified as averb, 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 46239, this pair ranks #1,325,935 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marks vs Nikolai

Shared letters: ak. Private to "marks": mrs. Private to "Nikolai": ilno.

"marks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Nikolai" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marksamrks · makrs · markks · markss · marrks · marsk · mmarks · mraks
  • Nikolaiinkolai · nikkolai · nikloai · nikoali · nikolia · nikollai · nioklai · nkiolai

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "marks" and "Nikolai" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marks" is a verb and "Nikolai" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "marks" or "Nikolai" show up more?
"Nikolai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,009 in our German list, against #25,230 for "marks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "marks" 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 #1,325,935 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marks" and "Nikolai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marks 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 #1,325,935 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