DingevsdrinneWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Dinge is a noun, drinne is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#516
“Dinge” frequency rank
#33,538
“drinne” frequency rank
34054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dinge drinne
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Ding im Inneren

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Dinge and drinne apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
Dinge
6 ch
drinne

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dinge is [ˈdɪŋə] while drinne is [ˈdʁɪnə]. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dinge is recorded at frequency rank #516, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɪŋə]. drinne is at rank #33,538, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈdʁɪnə].

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 34054, this pair ranks #1,672,030 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Dinge vs drinne

Shared letters: dein. Private to "Dinge": g. Private to "drinne": r.

"Dinge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "drinne" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dingeddinge · digne · dineg · dingge · dinnge · dnige · idnge
  • drinneddrinne · dirnne · drine · drnine · drrinne · rdinne

Frequency comparison

Dinge#516
drinne#33,538

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Dinge" and "drinne" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dinge" is a noun and "drinne" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Dinge" or "drinne"?
"Dinge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #516 in our German list, against #33,538 for "drinne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Dinge vs drinne

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Dinge”; for an adverb, it's “drinne”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Dinge” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list