NagervsnähenTell them apart

Quick tell: Nager is a noun, nähen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,815
“Nager” frequency rank
#13,452
“nähen” frequency rank
58267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nager nähen
Definition Säugetier (Ordnung Rodentia) mit langen, ständig nachwachsenden Schneidezähnen Textilteile mit einem Faden verbinden

Where the eye mixes Nager and nähen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Nager and nähen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Nager
5 ch
nähen

Why the eye confuses Nager with nähen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Nager is [ˈnaːɡɐ] while nähen is [ˈnɛːən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58267, 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]. nähen is at rank #13,452, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈnɛːən].

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 58267, this pair ranks #869,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Nager vs nähen

Shared letters: en. Private to "Nager": agr. Private to "nähen": hä.

"Nager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "nähen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nager ← naegr · nagerr · nagger · nagre · ngaer · nnager

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Nager" for "nähen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Nager" is a noun and "nähen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Nager" or "nähen"?
"nähen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,452 in our German list, against #44,815 for "Nager". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Nager" and "nähen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nähen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #869,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nager" and "nähen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs Nager". 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 #869,406 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