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What's the difference between “nah” and “nahe”?

萌宠菠菠乐园
2026-01-22 12:02

There is no difference in meaning between nah and nahe. This adjective belongs to this group:

alleine, bange, blöde, böse, derbe, fade, feige, milde, nahe, öde, rapide, sachte, spröde, stupide, träge, trübe, zähe

all of which can also be used without the ending -e:

allein, bang, blöd, bös, derb, fad, feig, mild, nah, öd, rapid, sacht, spröd, stupid, träg, trüb, zäh

There is no difference in the meaning between those pairs.

Here is the explanation for that phenomenon:

German distinguishes between three types of syllables when it comes to syllable stress:

betonte Silben (stressed syllables) unbetonte Silben (unstressed syllables) Reduktionssilben (reduction syllables)

I will show this with these examples: Dachdecker, Berater. Both words have three syllables, one of each kind:

Dachdecker (Roofer) Dach is the stressed syllable deck is the unstressed syllable er is the reduction syllable Berater (Consultant) Be is the unstressed syllable rat is the stressed syllable er is the reduction syllable

Both unstressed and reduction syllables are unstressed. In fact, the stress on a reduction syllable is slightly weaker than on an unstressed syllable. But the main difference is that we use a different set of sounds for the vowel that is the core of a reduction syllable. It is either a schwa, also known as mid central vowel (IPA symbol: ə), or a near-open central vowel (IPA symbol: ɐ), or no sound at all. In the latter case, we vocalize the main consonant of that reduction syllable.

The point is, that the sounds ə and ɐ are used only in reduction syllables, never in stressed or "normal" unstressed syllables. Also the vocalization of consonants without the use of a real vowel-sound happens only on reduction syllables.

reduction syllables with ə as sound for the syllables vowel:

Sil·be [ˈzɪlbə]
je·de [ˈjeːdə]
kei·ne [ˈkaɪ̯nə]
ei·nes [ˈaɪ̯nəs]
ei·nem [ˈaɪ̯nəm]
(du) spiel·test [ˈʃpiːltəst]

reduction syllables with ɐ as sound for the syllables vowel:

Lehr·er [ˈleːʁɐ]
(etwas) fe·dert [ˈfeːdɐt]
je·der [ˈjeːdɐ]
ein·ner [ˈaɪ̯nɐ]
(du) wei·gerst (dich) [ˈvaɪ̯ɡɐst]
(wir) for·dern [ˈfɔʁdɐn]

reduction syllables without a real vowel sound but with a vocalized consonant instead

Re·gel [ˈʁeːɡl̩] (vocalized L)
Ne·bel [ˈneːbl̩] (vocalized L)
Le·ben [ˈleːbn̩] (vocalized N)
han·deln [ˈhandl̩n] (vocalized L)
(du) bas·telst [ˈbastl̩st] (vocalized L)
(er) re·gelt [ˈʁeːɡl̩t] (vocalized L)

You may have noticed, that the written vowel in every reduction syllable is the letter e, and it is true, that a syllable with an other written vowel is never a reduction syllable. You may also have noticed another fact that is even more important: If a word has a reduction syllable, it is always the last syllable of that word. A reduction syllable cannot appear in the middle or at the beginning of a word. (If the word is an atomic word, i.e. not a compound word. Compound words like keinesfalls [ˈkaɪ̯nəsˌfals], jederman [ˈjeːdɐman] or Nebelwand [ˈneːbl̩ˌvant] are an exception, but compound words are in many ways different than atomic words.)

The point is now, that the reduction of ending-sounds is an ongoing process. Today we pronounce such reduction syllables even weaker than 200 years ago. And in case of many words, which have an ə in their spoken version, this leads to the fact, that this ə is often completely omitted. This is the reason, why you still can find in dictionaries two dative versions of some masculine nouns, and sometimes even two genitive versions, for example for the word Arm (arm; upper limb):

grammatical case singular plural Nominative der Arm die Arme Genitive des Arms, des Armes der Arme Dativ dem Arm, dem Arme den Armen Akkusativ den Arm die Arme

The versions des Armes and dem Arme are outdating and less and less used in modern German. (I even would say, that the dativ version dem Arme is not just only outdating but already outdated while the genitive version des Armes is still used, but with decreasing frequency.) Instead, we prefer the versions without the e (des Arms, dem Arm). But 200 years ago, des Arms and dem Arm were considered incorrect.

And the very same process happens with many adjectives that end in e. They are loosing their e. They first loose it in spoken colloquial German, but some decades later also in their written form in standard German. And this process happens with different speeds for different words and it affects not only adjectives, but almost all words that end in e.

So, which version should you learn?

You need to add both versions to your passive vocabulary (words that you hear and read) because both versions are in use or were in use at least in older written texts.

You must add the version without e to your active speaking vocabulary (words you say), because in colloquial speech the versions that already lost their e are the standard pronunciation, and colloquial speech is probably the kind of language, you will need most often, because it is the language of daily life. This is how family members, friends and colleagues talk to each other and it is the language that is spoken in shops and restaurants.

But whether or not you want to add the version with e to your active writing vocabulary (the words you write) depends on the types of text you'll be writing. If your texts are meant to be read by a larger group of readers (like articles in print publications), if they are important (like letters of application), or if you just want to appear smart and educated, then use the version with e, because they belong to the elevated language. But be careful: Elevated language can have an aloof effect in situations where more colloquial language would be appropriate (especially in spoken language).