nesvsnettWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nes is a noun, nett is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nes” is a noun and “nett” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,778
“nes” frequency rank
#1,706
“nett” frequency rank
30484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nes nett
Definition Landspitze lieb, liebenswürdig, angenehm

Letter map: nes vs nett

Shared letters muted; letters that set nes and nett apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
nes
4 ch
nett

Grammar separator: nes vs nett

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nes is anoun and nettanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nes is recorded at frequency rank #28,778, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. nett is at rank #1,706, tagged as anadj, pronounced [nɛt].

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 30484, this pair ranks #1,746,940 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nes vs nett

Shared letters: en. Private to "nes": s. Private to "nett": t.

"nes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nett" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nettentt · nnett · ntet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nes" and "nett" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nes" is a noun and "nett" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nes" or "nett" show up more?
"nett" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,706 in our German list, against #28,778 for "nes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "nes" vs "nett" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nett" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,746,940 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nes" and "nett" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nes vs puzzles". 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 #1,746,940 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