neivsnitWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nei is a verb, nit is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,309
“nei” frequency rank
#15,169
“nit” frequency rank
53478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nei nit
Definition verneinen, negieren, abstreiten Nisse

Letter map: nei vs nit

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

3 ch
nei
3 ch
nit

Part-of-speech tell for nei / nit

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nei is averb and nitanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nei is recorded at frequency rank #38,309, classified as averb, pronounced […]. nit is at rank #15,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced [nɪt].

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 53478, this pair ranks #1,056,441 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nei vs nit

Shared letters: in. Private to "nei": e. Private to "nit": t.

"nei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "nit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nei" and "nit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nei" is a verb and "nit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nei" or "nit" show up more?
"nit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,169 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nei" and "nit".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,056,441 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nei" and "nit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,056,441 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