Not vs now, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Not” is a noun and “now” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,779
“Not” frequency rank: #6,570
“now” frequency rank: 8349
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Not	now
Definition	ein Zustand des Mangels oder des Fehlens an Lebenswichtigem	in diesem Moment; jetzt; gerade

Where the eye mixes Not and now

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

Not

3 ch

now

Why the eye confuses Not with now

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Not is [noːt] while now is [naʊ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - t in “Not” becomes w in “now”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8349, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Not is recorded at frequency rank #1,779, classified as anoun, pronounced [noːt]. now is at rank #6,570, tagged as anadv, pronounced [naʊ].

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 8349, this pair ranks #1,984,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Not vs now

Shared letters: no. Private to "Not": t. Private to "now": w.

"Not" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "now" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Not" and "now" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Not" is a noun and "now" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Not" or "now"?

"Not" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,779 in our German list, against #6,570 for "now". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Not" and "now" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "Not" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "now" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,984,636 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Not" and "now" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "now vs nox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,984,636 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.