deinevsderbeConfusable pair

Quick tell: deine is a unknown, derbe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deine” is an unknown and “derbe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#255
“deine” frequency rank
#20,213
“derbe” frequency rank
20468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deine derbe
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum des Possessivpronomens dein sehr gut, nicht schlecht

Where the eye mixes deine and derbe

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

5 ch
deine
5 ch
derbe

Look-alike desk: deine vs derbe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deine is [ˈdaɪ̯nə] while derbe is [ˈdɛʁbə]. 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 (unknown vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deine is recorded at frequency rank #255, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈdaɪ̯nə]. derbe is at rank #20,213, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdɛʁbə].

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 20468, this pair ranks #1,897,330 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deine vs derbe

Shared letters: de. Private to "deine": in. Private to "derbe": br.

"deine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "derbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deineddeine · deien · deinne · denie · edine
  • derbedderbe · debre · derbbe · dereb · derrbe · drebe · edrbe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "deine" and "derbe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deine" is an unknown and "derbe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "deine" vs "derbe" - which ranks higher?
"deine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #255 in our German list, against #20,213 for "derbe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "deine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,897,330 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deine" and "derbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degree vs derbe". 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 #1,897,330 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