nagervsNaguiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: nager is a verb, Nagui is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nager” is a verb and “Nagui” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,541
“nager” frequency rank
#41,915
“Nagui” frequency rank
52456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nager Nagui
Definition Se déplacer dans l'eau (pour un être vivant) par le mouvement de certaines parties du corps. Prénom masculin.

Where the eye mixes nager and Nagui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. nager (CVCVC) and Nagui (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
nager
5 ch
Nagui

Why the eye confuses nager with Nagui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nager is \na.ʒe\ while Nagui is \na.ɡi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nager is recorded at frequency rank #10,541, classified as averb, pronounced \na.ʒe\. Nagui is at rank #41,915, tagged as aname, pronounced \na.ɡi\.

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 52456, this pair ranks #147,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nager vs Nagui

Shared letters: agn. Private to "nager": er. Private to "Nagui": iu.

"nager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Nagui" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nageranger · naegr · nagerr · nagger · nagre · ngaer · nnager
  • Naguiangui · naggui · nagiu · naugi · ngaui · nnagui

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nager" for "Nagui" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nager" is a verb and "Nagui" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "nager" or "Nagui" show up more?
"nager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,541 in our French list, against #41,915 for "Nagui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "nager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Nagui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nager" and "Nagui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nagui vs nai". 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 #147,595 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list