ng vs ni, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ng” is a character and “ni” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,276
“ng” frequency rank: #274
“ni” frequency rank: 30550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ng	ni
Definition	Dix-huitième lettre de l’alphabet guarani (minuscule).	Conjonction de coordination négative qui correspond à et affirmatif.

Where the eye mixes ng and ni

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

2 ch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ng is \ᵑɡ\ while ni is \ni\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “ng” becomes i in “ni”, and the parts of speech differ too (character vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ng is recorded at frequency rank #30,276, classified as acharacter, pronounced \ᵑɡ\. ni is at rank #274, tagged as aconj, pronounced \ni\.

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 30550, this pair ranks #309,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ng vs ni

Shared letters: n. Private to "ng": g. Private to "ni": i.

"ng" · 2 letters · shape CC · "ni" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ng" and "ni" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ng" is a character and "ni" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ng" or "ni"?

"ni" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #274 in our French list, against #30,276 for "ng". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "ng" and "ni". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "ng" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ni" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #309,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ng" and "ni" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ng vs nop". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.