feinevsfinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“feine” and “fin” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,261
“feine” frequency rank
#19,906
“fin” frequency rank
25167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feine fin
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs fein fein, dünn

Where the eye mixes feine and fin

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

5 ch
feine
3 ch
fin

Visual trap between feine and fin

A purely visual mix-up. feine ([ˈfaɪ̯nə]) and fin ([ˌfiːn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feine is recorded at frequency rank #5,261, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaɪ̯nə]. fin is at rank #19,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˌfiːn].

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 25167, this pair ranks #1,837,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feine vs fin

Shared letters: fin. Private to "feine": e. Private to "fin": -.

"feine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "fin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feineefine · feien · feinne · fenie · ffeine · fiene

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feine" for "fin" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfaɪ̯nə] versus [ˌfiːn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "feine" or "fin"?
"feine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,261 in our German list, against #19,906 for "fin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,837,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feine" and "fin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fin vs fist". 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 #1,837,209 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