feinevsfindeConfusable pair

Quick tell: feine is a adjective, finde is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,261
“feine” frequency rank
#431
“finde” frequency rank
5692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feine finde
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs fein 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs finden

Where the eye mixes feine and finde

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

5 ch
feine
5 ch
finde

Look-alike desk: feine vs finde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feine is [ˈfaɪ̯nə] while finde is [ˈfɪndə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5692, 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]. finde is at rank #431, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfɪndə].

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 5692, this pair ranks #1,994,024 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feine vs finde

Shared letters: efin. Private to "feine": -. Private to "finde": d.

"feine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "finde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feineefine · feien · feinne · fenie · ffeine · fiene
  • findeffinde · fidne · findde · fined · finnde · fnide · ifnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feine" for "finde" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feine" is an adjective and "finde" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "feine" or "finde" show up more?
"finde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #431 in our German list, against #5,261 for "feine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,024 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feine" and "finde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feine 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 #1,994,024 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