feinevsfineTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,261
“feine” frequency rank
#15,086
“fine” frequency rank
20347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feine fine
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs fein ausgezeichnet

Where the eye mixes feine and fine

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

5 ch
feine
4 ch
fine

Why the eye confuses feine with fine

A purely visual mix-up. feine ([ˈfaɪ̯nə]) and fine ([faɪn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20347, 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]. fine is at rank #15,086, tagged as anadj, pronounced [faɪn].

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 20347, this pair ranks #1,898,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feine vs fine

Shared letters: efin. Private to "feine": -. Private to "fine": -.

"feine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "fine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feineefine · feien · feinne · fenie · ffeine · fiene
  • fineffine · fnie · ifne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feine" and "fine" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfaɪ̯nə] versus [faɪn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "feine" or "fine" show up more?
"feine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,261 in our German list, against #15,086 for "fine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "fine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,898,682 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feine" and "fine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fine 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 #1,898,682 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