nesvsnousTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#28,778
“nes” frequency rank
#37,704
“nous” frequency rank
66482
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nes nous
Definition Landspitze wir

Letter map: nes vs nous

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

3 ch
nes
4 ch
nous

Part-of-speech tell for nes / nous

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: nes is anoun and nousapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nes is recorded at frequency rank #28,778, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. nous is at rank #37,704, tagged as apron, pronounced [nu].

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 66482, this pair ranks #571,747 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nes vs nous

Shared letters: ns. Private to "nes": e. Private to "nous": ou.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nousnnous · nosu · nouss · nuos · onus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nes" and "nous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nes" is a noun and "nous" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "nes" vs "nous" - which ranks higher?
"nes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,778 in our German list, against #37,704 for "nous". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "nes" and "nous".

  • Full dictionary entry for "nes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #571,747 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nes" and "nous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nous vs nox". 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 #571,747 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