Which to use
“keine” is an unknown and “Kerze” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #79
- “keine” frequency rank
- #12,517
- “Kerze” frequency rank
- 12596
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | keine | Kerze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Indefinitpronomens kein | Leuchtmittel mit offener Flamme; bestehend aus Wachs |
Where the eye mixes keine and Kerze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. keine (CVVCV) and Kerze (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: keine vs Kerze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: keine is [ˈkaɪ̯nə] while Kerze is [ˈkɛʁt͡sə]. 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 (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
keine is recorded at frequency rank #79, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈkaɪ̯nə]. Kerze is at rank #12,517, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɛʁt͡sə].
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 12596, this pair ranks #1,963,235 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of keine vs Kerze
Shared letters: ek. Private to "keine": in. Private to "Kerze": rz.
"keine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "Kerze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "keine" and "Kerze" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "keine" or "Kerze" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "keine" and "Kerze" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "keine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Kerze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,963,235 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "keine" and "Kerze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "karge vs Kerze". 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 #1,963,235 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.