deinenvsdingenTell them apart

Quick tell: deinen is a unknown, dingen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deinen” is an unknown and “dingen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#632
“deinen” frequency rank
#2,643
“dingen” frequency rank
3275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deinen dingen
Definition Akkusativ Singular des Pronomens dein jemanden anwerben, jemanden gegen Lohn eine Aufgabe erledigen lassen (heute vor allem im Zusammenhang mit kriminellen Machenschaften benutzt)

Where the eye mixes deinen and dingen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
deinen
6 ch
dingen

Why the eye confuses deinen with dingen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deinen is [ˈdaɪ̯nən] while dingen is [ˈdɪŋən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deinen is recorded at frequency rank #632, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈdaɪ̯nən]. dingen is at rank #2,643, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈdɪŋən].

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 3275, this pair ranks #2,000,558 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deinen vs dingen

Shared letters: dein. Private to "deinen": -. Private to "dingen": g.

"deinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "dingen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deinenddeinen · deienn · deinenn · deinnen · denien · edinen
  • dingenddingen · dignen · dinegn · dingenn · dinggen · dingne · dinngen · dnigen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deinen" for "dingen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deinen" is an unknown and "dingen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "deinen" vs "dingen" - which ranks higher?
"deinen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #632 in our German list, against #2,643 for "dingen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "deinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dingen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,000,558 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deinen" and "dingen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dingen vs dissen". 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 #2,000,558 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