NS vs nur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“NS” is an abbrev and “nur” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,294
“NS” frequency rank: #40
“nur” frequency rank: 4334
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	NS	nur
Definition	Nachsatz, Nachschrift	generell: unterstreicht die Betonung oder Einschränkung der Satzteilaussage

Where the eye mixes NS and nur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

nur

Look-alike desk: NS vs nur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: NS is [ɛnˈʔɛs] while nur is [nuːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (abbrev vs particle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

NS is recorded at frequency rank #4,294, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [ɛnˈʔɛs]. nur is at rank #40, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [nuːɐ̯].

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 4334, this pair ranks #1,997,995 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of NS vs nur

Shared letters: n. Private to "NS": s. Private to "nur": ru.

"NS" · 2 letters · shape CC · "nur" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "NS" and "nur" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "NS" is an abbrev and "nur" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "NS" or "nur" show up more?

"nur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40 in our German list, against #4,294 for "NS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "NS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "nur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,997,995 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"NS" and "nur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nox vs NS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,997,995 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.