eenvseinenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: een is a num, einen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“een” is a num and “einen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,012
“een” frequency rank
#46
“einen” frequency rank
33058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature een einen
Definition eins; einer; ein einziger zur Gemeinsamkeit führen

Letter map: een vs einen

Shared letters muted; letters that set een and einen apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
een
5 ch
einen

Role in the sentence - een and einen

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: een is anum and einenaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

een is recorded at frequency rank #33,012, classified as anum, pronounced […]. einen is at rank #46, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯nən].

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 33058, this pair ranks #1,694,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of een vs einen

Shared letters: en. Private to "een": -. Private to "einen": i.

"een" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "einen" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eineneienn · einenn · einnen · enien · ienen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "een" and "einen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "een" is a num and "einen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "een" or "einen" show up more?
"einen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46 in our German list, against #33,012 for "een". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "een" vs "einen" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "een" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "einen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,694,189 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "een" and "einen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "een vs puzzles". 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 #1,694,189 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