nähenvsNamenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#13,452
“nähen” frequency rank
#380
“Namen” frequency rank
13832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nähen Namen
Definition Textilteile mit einem Faden verbinden siehe Name

Where the eye mixes nähen and Namen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nähen and Namen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
nähen
5 ch
Namen

Why the eye confuses nähen with Namen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nähen is [ˈnɛːən] while Namen is [ˈnaːmən]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nähen is recorded at frequency rank #13,452, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈnɛːən]. Namen is at rank #380, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnaːmən].

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 13832, this pair ranks #1,955,383 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nähen vs Namen

Shared letters: en. Private to "nähen": . Private to "Namen": am.

"nähen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Namen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Namenanmen · naemn · namenn · nammen · namne · nmaen · nnamen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nähen" and "Namen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nähen" is a verb and "Namen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "nähen" vs "Namen" - which ranks higher?
"Namen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #380 in our German list, against #13,452 for "nähen". 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 "nähen" and "Namen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nähen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Namen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,955,383 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nähen" and "Namen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs nähen". 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 #1,955,383 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