EbenevseineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Ebene is a noun, eine is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ebene” is a noun and “eine” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,875
“Ebene” frequency rank
#19
“eine” frequency rank
1894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ebene eine
Definition ungekrümmte, planare Fläche [1] Nominativ Singular Femininum des unbestimmten Artikels ein

Where the eye mixes Ebene and eine

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

5 ch
Ebene
4 ch
eine

Why the eye confuses Ebene with eine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ebene is [ˈeːbənə] while eine is [ˈaɪ̯nə]. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ebene is recorded at frequency rank #1,875, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈeːbənə]. eine is at rank #19, tagged as adet, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯nə].

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 1894, this pair ranks #2,003,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ebene vs eine

Shared letters: en. Private to "Ebene": b. Private to "eine": i.

"Ebene" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "eine" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ebenebeene · ebbene · ebeen · ebenne · ebnee · eebne
  • eineeien · einne · enie · iene

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ebene" and "eine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ebene" is a noun and "eine" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ebene" or "eine" show up more?
"eine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our German list, against #1,875 for "Ebene". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Ebene" and "eine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ebene" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ebene" and "eine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eine vs Erle". 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 #2,003,517 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