NagervsnagyConfusable pair

Quick tell: Nager is a noun, nagy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Nager” is a noun and “nagy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,815
“Nager” frequency rank
#49,111
“nagy” frequency rank
93926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nager nagy
Definition Säugetier (Ordnung Rodentia) mit langen, ständig nachwachsenden Schneidezähnen groß

Where the eye mixes Nager and nagy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Nager runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against nagy's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Nager
4 ch
nagy

Visual trap between Nager and nagy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Nager is [ˈnaːɡɐ] while nagy is [nɒɟ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Nager is recorded at frequency rank #44,815, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈnaːɡɐ]. nagy is at rank #49,111, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nɒɟ].

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 93926, this pair ranks #19,778 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Nager vs nagy

Shared letters: agn. Private to "Nager": er. Private to "nagy": y.

"Nager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "nagy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nager ← naegr · nagerr · nagger · nagre · ngaer · nnager
  • nagy ← angy · naggy · nagyy · nayg · ngay · nnagy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Nager" for "nagy" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Nager" is a noun and "nagy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Nager" vs "nagy" - which ranks higher?
"Nager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,815 in our German list, against #49,111 for "nagy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nagy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,778 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nager" and "nagy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs nagy". 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 #19,778 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