einevsengeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#19
“eine” frequency rank
#3,724
“enge” frequency rank
3743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eine enge
Definition [1] Nominativ Singular Femininum des unbestimmten Artikels ein Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs eng

Where the eye mixes eine and enge

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

4 ch
eine
4 ch
enge

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eine is [ˈaɪ̯nə] while enge is [ˈɛŋə]. 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 (determiner vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eine is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as adet, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯nə]. enge is at rank #3,724, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛŋə].

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 3743, this pair ranks #1,999,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eine vs enge

Shared letters: en. Private to "eine": i. Private to "enge": g.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eineeien · einne · enie · iene
  • engeegne · eneg · engge · ennge · nege

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "eine" and "enge" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eine" is a determiner and "enge" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "eine" or "enge"?
"eine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our German list, against #3,724 for "enge". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "eine" and "enge". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eine" and "enge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enge 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list