Which to use
“near” is an adjective and “nein” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,730
- “near” frequency rank
- #281
- “nein” frequency rank
- 34011
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | nein |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nahe | Partikel, die Ablehnung, Verneinung, Negation, Widerspruch bekundet, gewöhnlich auf eine Frage |
Letter map: near vs nein
Shared letters muted; letters that set near and nein apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. near and nein follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: near vs nein
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and neinaparticle. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #33,730, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. nein is at rank #281, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [naɪ̯n].
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 34011, this pair ranks #1,673,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of near vs nein
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "nein": i.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "nein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "near" and "nein" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "near" or "nein"?
What to do next
You've compared "near" and "nein". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "near" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nein" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,673,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "nein" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "near 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 #1,673,008 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.