BeinevsboneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,192
“Beine” frequency rank
#30,966
“bone” frequency rank
33158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Beine bone
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Bein Knochen

Where the eye mixes Beine and bone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Beine
4 ch
bone

Look-alike desk: Beine vs bone

A purely visual mix-up. Beine ([ˈbaɪ̯nə]) and bone ([bəʊn]) 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 33158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Beine is recorded at frequency rank #2,192, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbaɪ̯nə]. bone is at rank #30,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced [bəʊn].

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 33158, this pair ranks #1,692,032 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Beine vs bone

Shared letters: ben. Private to "Beine": i. Private to "bone": o.

"Beine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "bone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Beinebbeine · beien · beinne · benie · ebine
  • bonebbone · bnoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Beine" and "bone" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbaɪ̯nə] versus [bəʊn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Beine" or "bone" show up more?
"Beine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,192 in our German list, against #30,966 for "bone". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Beine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,692,032 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Beine" and "bone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bone vs Borneo". 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 #1,692,032 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