nesvsnicWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,778
“nes” frequency rank
#33,733
“nic” frequency rank
62511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nes nic
Definition Landspitze nichts

Letter map: nes vs nic

Shared letters muted; letters that set nes and nic apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. nes and nic follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
nes
3 ch
nic

Part-of-speech tell for nes / nic

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nes is anoun and nicapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nes is recorded at frequency rank #28,778, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. nic is at rank #33,733, tagged as apron, pronounced [ɲit͡s].

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 62511, this pair ranks #710,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nes vs nic

Shared letters: n. Private to "nes": es. Private to "nic": ci.

"nes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "nic" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nes" and "nic" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nes" is a noun and "nic" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "nes" or "nic" show up more?
"nes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,778 in our German list, against #33,733 for "nic". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "nes" and "nic". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #710,180 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nes" and "nic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nic vs nox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #710,180 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