KabinevskleineConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#9,390
“Kabine” frequency rank
#340
“kleine” frequency rank
9730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Kabine kleine
Definition meist kleiner, abgeschlossener Raum in einem (Wasser-)Fahrzeug Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs klein

Where the eye mixes Kabine and kleine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Kabine (CVCVCV) and kleine (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Kabine
6 ch
kleine

Why the eye confuses Kabine with kleine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kabine is [kaˈbiːnə] while kleine is [ˈklaɪ̯nə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Kabine is recorded at frequency rank #9,390, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈbiːnə]. kleine is at rank #340, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈklaɪ̯nə].

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 9730, this pair ranks #1,978,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Kabine vs kleine

Shared letters: eikn. Private to "Kabine": ab. Private to "kleine": l.

"Kabine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "kleine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Kabine ← akbine · kabbine · kabien · kabinne · kabnie · kaibne · kbaine · kkabine
  • kleine ← keline · kkleine · kleien · kleinne · klenie · kliene · klleine · lkeine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Kabine" and "kleine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Kabine" is a noun and "kleine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Kabine" or "kleine" show up more?
"kleine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #340 in our German list, against #9,390 for "Kabine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Kabine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kleine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Kabine" and "kleine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kabine vs Kasino". 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 #1,978,571 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