HinweisevshinweisenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Hinweise is a noun, hinweisen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hinweise” is a noun and “hinweisen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,449
“Hinweise” frequency rank
#4,996
“hinweisen” frequency rank
7445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hinweise hinweisen
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Hinweis jemandem etwas zur Kenntnis bringen; in Erinnerung rufen

Where the eye mixes Hinweise and hinweisen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. Hinweise runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against hinweisen's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
Hinweise
9 ch
hinweisen

Visual trap between Hinweise and hinweisen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hinweise is [ˈhɪnvaɪ̯zə] while hinweisen is [ˈhɪnˌvaɪ̯zn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Hinweise” sits inside “hinweisen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hinweise is recorded at frequency rank #2,449, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɪnvaɪ̯zə]. hinweisen is at rank #4,996, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhɪnˌvaɪ̯zn̩].

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 7445, this pair ranks #1,988,129 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hinweise vs hinweisen

Shared letters: ehinsw. Private to "Hinweise": -. Private to "hinweisen": -.

"Hinweise" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "hinweisen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hinweise ← hhinweise · hinewise · hinnweise · hinweies · hinweisse · hinwesie · hinwiese · hinwweise
  • hinweisen ← hhinweisen · hinewisen · hinnweisen · hinweiesn · hinweisenn · hinweisne · hinweissen · hinwesien

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hinweise" for "hinweisen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hinweise" is a noun and "hinweisen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hinweise" vs "hinweisen" - which ranks higher?
"Hinweise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,449 in our German list, against #4,996 for "hinweisen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Hinweise" and "hinweisen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hinweise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hinweisen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,129 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hinweise" and "hinweisen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hinweisen vs hinweist". 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 #1,988,129 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