FeigevsfeineConfusable pair

Quick tell: Feige is a noun, feine is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Feige” is a noun and “feine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,425
“Feige” frequency rank
#5,261
“feine” frequency rank
16686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Feige feine
Definition essbare, süße, fleischige Frucht des Feigenbaums Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs fein

Where the eye mixes Feige and feine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Feige
5 ch
feine

Look-alike desk: Feige vs feine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Feige is [ˈfaɪ̯ɡə] while feine is [ˈfaɪ̯nə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “Feige” becomes n in “feine”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Feige is recorded at frequency rank #11,425, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaɪ̯ɡə]. feine is at rank #5,261, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaɪ̯nə].

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 16686, this pair ranks #1,933,805 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Feige vs feine

Shared letters: efi. Private to "Feige": g. Private to "feine": n.

"Feige" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "feine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Feigeefige · fegie · feieg · feigge · ffeige · fiege
  • feineefine · feien · feinne · fenie · ffeine · fiene

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Feige" for "feine" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Feige" is a noun and "feine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Feige" or "feine" show up more?
"feine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,261 in our German list, against #11,425 for "Feige". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Feige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,933,805 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Feige" and "feine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Feige vs Felge". 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 #1,933,805 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