Which to use
“near” is an adjective and “nei” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,730
- “near” frequency rank
- #38,309
- “nei” frequency rank
- 72039
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | nei |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nahe | verneinen, negieren, abstreiten |
Letter map: near vs nei
Shared letters muted; letters that set near and nei apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for near / nei
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and neiaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #33,730, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. 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 72039, this pair ranks #399,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of near vs nei
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "nei": i.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- near ← enar · naer · nearr · nera · nnear
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "near" and "nei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "near" vs "nei" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "near" and "nei".
- Full dictionary entry for "near" 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 #399,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "nei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". 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 #399,579 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.