Which to use
“near” is an adjective and “neun” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,730
- “near” frequency rank
- #1,639
- “neun” frequency rank
- 35369
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | near | neun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nahe | die Kardinalzahl zwischen acht und zehn |
Letter map: near vs neun
Shared letters muted; letters that set near and neun apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. near and neun follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - near and neun
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: near is anadjective and neunanum. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
near is recorded at frequency rank #33,730, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. neun is at rank #1,639, tagged as anum, pronounced [nɔɪ̯n].
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 35369, this pair ranks #1,641,643 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of near vs neun
Shared letters: en. Private to "near": ar. Private to "neun": u.
"near" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "neun" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "near" and "neun" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "near" or "neun" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "near" vs "neun" 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 "neun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,641,643 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "near" and "neun" 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 #1,641,643 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.