namesvsnesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,515
“names” frequency rank
#28,778
“nes” frequency rank
65293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature names nes
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs name Landspitze

Letter map: names vs nes

Shared letters muted; letters that set names and nes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
names
3 ch
nes

Part-of-speech tell for names / nes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: names is averb and nesanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

names is recorded at frequency rank #36,515, classified as averb, pronounced [neɪmz]. nes is at rank #28,778, tagged as anoun, 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 65293, this pair ranks #611,899 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of names vs nes

Shared letters: ens. Private to "names": am. Private to "nes": -.

"names" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "nes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • namesanmes · naems · namess · nammes · namse · nmaes · nnames

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "names" and "nes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "names" is a verb and "nes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "names" vs "nes" - which ranks higher?
"nes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,778 in our German list, against #36,515 for "names". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "names" vs "nes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "names" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #611,899 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "names" and "nes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nagen vs names". 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 #611,899 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