Which to use
“Nils” is a name and “nis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,446
- “Nils” frequency rank
- #49,821
- “nis” frequency rank
- 88267
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Nils | nis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prénom masculin scandinave, correspondant à Nicolas en français. | Participe actif présent du verbe ní (« se déplacer »). |
Letter map: Nils vs nis
Shared letters muted; letters that set Nils and nis apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Nils runs 4 letters (CVCC) against nis's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for Nils / nis
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Nils is aname and nisaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Nils is recorded at frequency rank #38,446, classified as aname. nis is at rank #49,821, tagged as averb, pronounced \nis\.
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 88267, this pair ranks #7,220 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Nils vs nis
Shared letters: ins. Private to "Nils": l. Private to "nis": -.
"Nils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "nis" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Nils ← inls · nills · nilss · nisl · nlis · nnils
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Nils" for "nis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Nils" vs "nis" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "Nils" and "nis". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Nils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,220 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Nils" and "nis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nis vs nop". 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 #7,220 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.