Which to use
“near” is an adjective and “nel” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,730
- “near” frequency rank
- #32,183
- “nel” frequency rank
- 65913
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | nel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nahe | Verschmelzung der Präposition in mit dem bestimmten Artikel il |
Letter map: near vs nel
Shared letters muted; letters that set near and nel apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. near runs 4 letters (CVVC) against nel's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - near and nel
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and nelapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #33,730, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. nel is at rank #32,183, tagged as aprep, pronounced [nel].
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 65913, this pair ranks #590,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of near vs nel
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "nel": l.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "nel" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- near ← enar · naer · nearr · nera · nnear
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "near" and "nel" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "near" or "nel"?
Useful next steps
Pair "near" vs "nel" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "near" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #590,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "nel" 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 #590,762 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.