neivsNGOWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nei is a verb, NGO is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,309
“nei” frequency rank
#23,644
“NGO” frequency rank
61953
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nei NGO
Definition verneinen, negieren, abstreiten in den unterschiedlichsten zivilgesellschaftlichen Bereichen tätige regierungsunabhängige Organisation

Letter map: nei vs NGO

Shared letters muted; letters that set nei and NGO apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. nei (CVV) and NGO (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
nei
3 ch
NGO

Part-of-speech tell for nei / NGO

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nei is averb and NGOanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nei is recorded at frequency rank #38,309, classified as averb, pronounced […]. NGO is at rank #23,644, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [ˌɛnd͡ʒiˈʔoʊ].

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 61953, this pair ranks #730,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nei vs NGO

Shared letters: n. Private to "nei": ei. Private to "NGO": go.

"nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "NGO" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nei" and "NGO" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nei" is a verb and "NGO" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nei" or "NGO" show up more?
"NGO" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,644 in our German list, against #38,309 for "nei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "nei" vs "NGO" 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 "NGO" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #730,660 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nei" and "NGO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #730,660 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