Which to use
“nerve” is a verb and “nervige” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,351
- “nerve” frequency rank
- #24,053
- “nervige” frequency rank
- 72404
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nerve | nervige |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs nerven | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs nervig |
Where the eye mixes nerve and nervige
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. nerve runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against nervige's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses nerve with nervige
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nerve is [ˈnɛʁfə] while nervige is [ˈnɛʁfɪɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nerve is recorded at frequency rank #48,351, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈnɛʁfə]. nervige is at rank #24,053, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈnɛʁfɪɡə].
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 72404, this pair ranks #389,293 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of nerve vs nervige
Shared letters: enrv. Private to "nerve": -. Private to "nervige": gi.
"nerve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "nervige" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "nerve" and "nervige" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "nerve" or "nervige" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "nerve" and "nervige" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "nerve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nervige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,293 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nerve" and "nervige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nerve vs Nervus". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #389,293 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.