nei vs Ni, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,309
“nei” frequency rank: #10,906
“Ni” frequency rank: 49215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nei	Ni
Definition	verneinen, negieren, abstreiten	Nickel

Letter map: nei vs Ni

Shared letters muted; letters that set nei and Ni apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. nei runs 3 letters (CVV) against Ni's 2 (CV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch

nei

2 ch

Grammar separator: nei vs Ni

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nei is averb and Nianabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nei is recorded at frequency rank #38,309, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Ni is at rank #10,906, tagged as anabbrev.

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 49215, this pair ranks #1,219,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nei vs Ni

Shared letters: in. Private to "nei": e. Private to "Ni": -.

"nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "Ni" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary German text, does "nei" or "Ni" show up more?

"Ni" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,906 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 "Ni" 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 "Ni" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,219,762 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nei" and "Ni" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,219,762 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.