neckvsnettWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: neck is a verb, nett is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“neck” is a verb and “nett” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,472
“neck” frequency rank
#1,706
“nett” frequency rank
47178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature neck nett
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs necken lieb, liebenswürdig, angenehm

Where the eye mixes neck and nett

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
neck
4 ch
nett

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neck is [nɛk] while nett is [nɛt]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

neck is recorded at frequency rank #45,472, classified as averb, pronounced [nɛk]. nett is at rank #1,706, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nɛt].

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 47178, this pair ranks #1,293,538 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of neck vs nett

Shared letters: en. Private to "neck": ck. Private to "nett": t.

"neck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "nett" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • neckenck · ncek · necck · neckk · nekc · nneck
  • nettentt · nnett · ntet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "neck" and "nett" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "neck" is a verb and "nett" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "neck" or "nett"?
"nett" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,706 in our German list, against #45,472 for "neck". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list