NähtevsnehmeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,876
“Nähte” frequency rank
#1,674
“nehme” frequency rank
29550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nähte nehme
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Naht 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs nehmen

Where the eye mixes Nähte and nehme

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

5 ch
Nähte
5 ch
nehme

Visual trap between Nähte and nehme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Nähte is [ˈnɛːtə] while nehme is [ˈneːmə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Nähte is recorded at frequency rank #27,876, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈnɛːtə]. nehme is at rank #1,674, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈneːmə].

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 29550, this pair ranks #1,764,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Nähte vs nehme

Shared letters: ehn. Private to "Nähte": tä. Private to "nehme": m.

"Nähte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "nehme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nehme ← enhme · nehem · nehhme · nehmme · nemhe · nheme · nnehme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Nähte" and "nehme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Nähte" is a noun and "nehme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Nähte" or "nehme"?
"nehme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,674 in our German list, against #27,876 for "Nähte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nähte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nehme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,764,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nähte" and "nehme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagt vs Nähte". 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 #1,764,758 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