alleinevsalpineWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“alleine” and “alpine” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#946
“alleine” frequency rank
#20,488
“alpine” frequency rank
21434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alleine alpine
Definition nicht dekliniert, allein; für sich, ohne weitere Person Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs alpin

Where the eye mixes alleine and alpine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. alleine runs 7 letters (VCCVVCV) against alpine's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
alleine
6 ch
alpine

Why the eye confuses alleine with alpine

A purely visual mix-up. alleine ([aˈlaɪ̯nə]) and alpine ([alˈpiːnə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alleine is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈlaɪ̯nə]. alpine is at rank #20,488, tagged as anadj, pronounced [alˈpiːnə].

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 21434, this pair ranks #1,886,302 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of alleine vs alpine

Shared letters: aeiln. Private to "alleine": -. Private to "alpine": p.

"alleine" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "alpine" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alleine ← aleine · aleline · alleien · alleinne · allenie · alliene · laleine
  • alpine ← alipne · allpine · alpien · alpinne · alpnie · alppine · apline · lapine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alleine" for "alpine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈlaɪ̯nə] versus [alˈpiːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alleine" or "alpine"?
"alleine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #946 in our German list, against #20,488 for "alpine". 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 "alleine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alpine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,886,302 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alleine" and "alpine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Albin vs alpine". 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 #1,886,302 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list