nei vs ny, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,309
“nei” frequency rank: #20,687
“ny” frequency rank: 58996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	nei	ny
Definition	verneinen, negieren, abstreiten	neu

Letter map: nei vs ny

Shared letters muted; letters that set nei and ny apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

nei

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for nei / ny

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nei is averb and nyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nei is recorded at frequency rank #38,309, classified as averb, pronounced […]. ny is at rank #20,687, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nyː].

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 58996, this pair ranks #841,281 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nei vs ny

Shared letters: n. Private to "nei": ei. Private to "ny": y.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nei" and "ny" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "nei" vs "ny" - which ranks higher?

"ny" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,687 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

Pair "nei" vs "ny" 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 "ny" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #841,281 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"nei" and "ny" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nei vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #841,281 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.