nachvsNATOWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nach is a preposition, NATO is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nach” is a preposition and “NATO” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35
“nach” frequency rank
#2,914
“NATO” frequency rank
2949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nach NATO
Definition in Richtung (mit Dativ oder adverbialer Bestimmung des Ortes) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, zu deutsch Nordatlantikvertrag-Organisation

Where the eye mixes nach and NATO

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
nach
4 ch
NATO

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nach is [naːx] while NATO is [ˈnaːto]. 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 (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nach is recorded at frequency rank #35, classified as aprep, pronounced [naːx]. NATO is at rank #2,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnaːto].

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 2949, this pair ranks #2,001,257 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nach vs NATO

Shared letters: an. Private to "nach": ch. Private to "NATO": ot.

"nach" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "NATO" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nachanch · nacch · nachh · nahc · ncah · nnach
  • NATOanto · naot · natto · nnato · ntao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nach" and "NATO" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nach" is a preposition and "NATO" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nach" or "NATO"?
"nach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35 in our German list, against #2,914 for "NATO". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "nach" and "NATO". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "NATO" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,001,257 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nach" and "NATO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagy vs NATO". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list