NebelvsneuesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Nebel is a noun, neues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Nebel” is a noun and “neues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,630
“Nebel” frequency rank
#549
“neues” frequency rank
6179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Nebel neues
Definition Gemisch fein verteilter Flüssigkeitströpfchen, meistens Wassertröpfchen, und/oder Eiskristalle in Gasen, meist in der Luft Nominativ Neutrum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs neu

Where the eye mixes Nebel and neues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Nebel
5 ch
neues

Why the eye confuses Nebel with neues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Nebel is [ˈneːbl̩] while neues is [ˈnɔɪ̯əs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Nebel is recorded at frequency rank #5,630, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈneːbl̩]. neues is at rank #549, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈnɔɪ̯əs].

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 6179, this pair ranks #1,992,468 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Nebel vs neues

Shared letters: en. Private to "Nebel": bl. Private to "neues": su.

"Nebel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "neues" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Nebelenbel · nbeel · nebbel · nebell · neble · neebl · nnebel
  • neuesenues · neeus · neuess · neuse · nneues · nuees

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Nebel" and "neues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Nebel" is a noun and "neues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Nebel" or "neues" show up more?
"neues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #549 in our German list, against #5,630 for "Nebel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Nebel" and "neues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Nebel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "neues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,992,468 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Nebel" and "neues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "neues vs Neuner". 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 #1,992,468 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