nagtvsnaheWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nagt is a verb, nahe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nagt” is a verb and “nahe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,816
“nagt” frequency rank
#1,064
“nahe” frequency rank
45880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nagt nahe
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs nagen räumlich nahe, wenig entfernt

Where the eye mixes nagt and nahe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. nagt (CVCC) and nahe (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
nagt
4 ch
nahe

Visual trap between nagt and nahe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nagt is [naːkt] while nahe is [ˈnaːə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nagt is recorded at frequency rank #44,816, classified as averb, pronounced [naːkt]. nahe is at rank #1,064, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈnaːə].

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 45880, this pair ranks #1,337,998 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nagt vs nahe

Shared letters: an. Private to "nagt": gt. Private to "nahe": eh.

"nagt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "nahe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nagtangt · naggt · nagtt · natg · ngat · nnagt
  • naheanhe · naeh · nahhe · nhae · nnahe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nagt" for "nahe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nagt" is a verb and "nahe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nagt" or "nahe" show up more?
"nahe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,064 in our German list, against #44,816 for "nagt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nagt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nahe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,337,998 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nagt" and "nahe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs nagt". 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 #1,337,998 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