NahmenvsnährenTell them apart

Quick tell: Nahmen is a name, nähren is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Nahmen” is a name and “nähren” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,510
“Nahmen” frequency rank
#35,361
“nähren” frequency rank
37871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nahmen nähren
Definition männlicher Vorname etwas wachsen und mehr oder bedeutender werden lassen

Letter map: Nahmen vs nähren

Shared letters muted; letters that set Nahmen and nähren apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Nahmen and nähren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Nahmen
6 ch
nähren

Grammar separator: Nahmen vs nähren

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Nahmen is aname and nährenaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Nahmen is recorded at frequency rank #2,510, classified as aname, pronounced […]. nähren is at rank #35,361, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈnɛːʁən].

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 37871, this pair ranks #1,578,890 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Nahmen vs nähren

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "Nahmen": am. Private to "nähren": rä.

"Nahmen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "nähren" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nahmen ← anhmen · nahemn · nahhmen · nahmenn · nahmmen · nahmne · namhen · nhamen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Nahmen" and "nähren" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Nahmen" is a name and "nähren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Nahmen" or "nähren"?
"Nahmen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,510 in our German list, against #35,361 for "nähren". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Nahmen" and "nähren". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nahmen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nähren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,578,890 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nahmen" and "nähren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs nähren". 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 #1,578,890 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