edlevseineWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,415
“edle” frequency rank
#19
“eine” frequency rank
11434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature edle eine
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs edel [1] Nominativ Singular Femininum des unbestimmten Artikels ein

Where the eye mixes edle and eine

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

4 ch
edle
4 ch
eine

Look-alike desk: edle vs eine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: edle is [ˈeːdlə] while eine is [ˈaɪ̯nə]. 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 (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

edle is recorded at frequency rank #11,415, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈeːdlə]. 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 11434, this pair ranks #1,969,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of edle vs eine

Shared letters: e. Private to "edle": dl. Private to "eine": in.

"edle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "eine" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • edledele · eddle · edlle · elde
  • eineeien · einne · enie · iene

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "edle" for "eine" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "edle" is an adjective and "eine" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "edle" or "eine"?
"eine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our German list, against #11,415 for "edle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "edle" 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 #1,969,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "edle" and "eine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "edle 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 #1,969,889 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