nagyvsnahmWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nagy is a adjective, nahm is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,111
“nagy” frequency rank
#936
“nahm” frequency rank
50047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nagy nahm
Definition groß 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs nehmen

Where the eye mixes nagy and nahm

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

4 ch
nagy
4 ch
nahm

Visual trap between nagy and nahm

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nagy is [nɒɟ] while nahm is [naːm]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50047, 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]. nahm is at rank #936, tagged as averb, pronounced [naːm].

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 50047, this pair ranks #1,188,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nagy vs nahm

Shared letters: an. Private to "nagy": gy. Private to "nahm": hm.

"nagy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nahm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nagyangy · naggy · nagyy · nayg · ngay · nnagy
  • nahmanhm · nahhm · nahmm · namh · nham · nnahm

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nagy" and "nahm" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nagy" is an adjective and "nahm" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nagy" or "nahm" show up more?
"nahm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #936 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nagy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nahm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,188,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nagy" and "nahm" 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 #1,188,604 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