nei vs neu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,309
“nei” frequency rank: #385
“neu” frequency rank: 38694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nei	neu
Definition	verneinen, negieren, abstreiten	vor kurzer Zeit gemacht oder geschehen

Letter map: nei vs neu

Shared letters muted; letters that set nei and neu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

nei

3 ch

neu

Role in the sentence - nei and neu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nei is averb and neuanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “nei” becomes u in “neu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nei is recorded at frequency rank #38,309, classified as averb, pronounced […]. neu is at rank #385, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nɔɪ̯].

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 38694, this pair ranks #1,557,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nei vs neu

Shared letters: en. Private to "nei": i. Private to "neu": u.

"nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "neu" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nei" and "neu" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nei" is a verb and "neu" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "nei" or "neu"?

"neu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #385 in our German list, against #38,309 for "nei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "nei" vs "neu" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "nei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "neu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,557,144 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nei" and "neu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,557,144 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.