bienvsBleiTell them apart

Quick tell: bien is a adverb, Blei is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bien” is an adverb and “Blei” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,924
“bien” frequency rank
#11,614
“Blei” frequency rank
37538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bien Blei
Definition vom Menschen her positiv bewertet silbernes, leicht verformbares, toxisch wirkendes Metall

Where the eye mixes bien and Blei

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bien
4 ch
Blei

Visual trap between bien and Blei

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bien is [ˈbjen] while Blei is [blaɪ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bien is recorded at frequency rank #25,924, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈbjen]. Blei is at rank #11,614, tagged as anoun, pronounced [blaɪ̯].

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 37538, this pair ranks #1,587,609 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bien vs Blei

Shared letters: bei. Private to "bien": n. Private to "Blei": l.

"bien" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Blei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bienbbien · bienn · bine · iben
  • Bleibblei · beli · blie · bllei · lbei

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bien" and "Blei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bien" is an adverb and "Blei" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bien" vs "Blei" - which ranks higher?
"Blei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,614 in our German list, against #25,924 for "bien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Blei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,587,609 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bien" and "Blei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bien vs Brenz". 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 #1,587,609 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