nagyvsnahWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“nagy” and “nah” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,111
“nagy” frequency rank
#2,353
“nah” frequency rank
51464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nagy nah
Definition groß räumlich wenig entfernt

Where the eye mixes nagy and nah

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

4 ch
nagy
3 ch
nah

Why the eye confuses nagy with nah

A purely visual mix-up. nagy ([nɒɟ]) and nah ([naː]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nagy is recorded at frequency rank #49,111, classified as anadj, pronounced [nɒɟ]. nah is at rank #2,353, tagged as anadj, pronounced [naː].

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 51464, this pair ranks #1,134,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nagy vs nah

Shared letters: an. Private to "nagy": gy. Private to "nah": h.

"nagy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nagyangy · naggy · nagyy · nayg · ngay · nnagy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nagy" for "nah" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([nɒɟ] versus [naː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "nagy" or "nah"?
"nah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,353 in our German list, against #49,111 for "nagy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nagy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,134,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nagy" and "nah" 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 #1,134,566 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