nah vs nei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,353
“nah” frequency rank: #38,309
“nei” frequency rank: 40662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nah	nei
Definition	räumlich wenig entfernt	verneinen, negieren, abstreiten

Letter map: nah vs nei

Shared letters muted; letters that set nah and nei apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

nah

3 ch

nei

Grammar separator: nah vs nei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nah is anadjective and neiaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nah is recorded at frequency rank #2,353, classified as anadj, pronounced [naː]. nei is at rank #38,309, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 40662, this pair ranks #1,501,999 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nah vs nei

Shared letters: n. Private to "nah": ah. Private to "nei": ei.

"nah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nah" for "nei" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nah" is an adjective and "nei" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "nah" vs "nei" - which ranks higher?

"nah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,353 in our German list, against #38,309 for "nei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "nah" and "nei". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "nah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,501,999 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nah" and "nei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,501,999 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.