nesvsneunWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: nes is a noun, neun is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,778
“nes” frequency rank
#1,639
“neun” frequency rank
30417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nes neun
Definition Landspitze die Kardinalzahl zwischen acht und zehn

Letter map: nes vs neun

Shared letters muted; letters that set nes and neun apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. nes runs 3 letters (CVC) against neun's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
nes
4 ch
neun

Grammar separator: nes vs neun

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nes is anoun and neunanum. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nes is recorded at frequency rank #28,778, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. neun is at rank #1,639, tagged as anum, pronounced [nɔɪ̯n].

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 30417, this pair ranks #1,748,247 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of nes vs neun

Shared letters: en. Private to "nes": s. Private to "neun": u.

"nes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "neun" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • neun ← enun · nenu · neunn · nneun · nuen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nes" and "neun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nes" is a noun and "neun" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nes" or "neun" show up more?
"neun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,639 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.

What to do next

Pair "nes" vs "neun" 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 "neun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,748,247 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nes" and "neun" 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 #1,748,247 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