BeinenvsblinkenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Beinen is a noun, blinken is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Beinen” is a noun and “blinken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,147
“Beinen” frequency rank
#28,107
“blinken” frequency rank
33254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Beinen blinken
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Bein rhythmisch kurze Lichtsignale aussenden

Where the eye mixes Beinen and blinken

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

6 ch
Beinen
7 ch
blinken

Look-alike desk: Beinen vs blinken

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Beinen is [ˈbaɪ̯nən] while blinken is [ˈblɪŋkn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Beinen is recorded at frequency rank #5,147, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbaɪ̯nən]. blinken is at rank #28,107, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈblɪŋkn̩].

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 33254, this pair ranks #1,689,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Beinen vs blinken

Shared letters: bein. Private to "Beinen": -. Private to "blinken": kl.

"Beinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "blinken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Beinen ← bbeinen · beienn · beinenn · beinnen · benien · ebinen
  • blinken ← bblinken · bilnken · bliknen · blinekn · blinkenn · blinkken · blinkne · blinnken

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Beinen" for "blinken" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Beinen" is a noun and "blinken" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Beinen" or "blinken" show up more?
"Beinen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,147 in our German list, against #28,107 for "blinken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Beinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blinken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,689,986 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Beinen" and "blinken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blindes vs blinken". 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 #1,689,986 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