keinevsKindeTell them apart

Quick tell: keine is a unknown, Kinde is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“keine” is an unknown and “Kinde” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#79
“keine” frequency rank
#39,467
“Kinde” frequency rank
39546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature keine Kinde
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Indefinitpronomens kein Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Kind

Where the eye mixes keine and Kinde

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

5 ch
keine
5 ch
Kinde

Why the eye confuses keine with Kinde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: keine is [ˈkaɪ̯nə] while Kinde is [ˈkɪndə]. 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 (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

keine is recorded at frequency rank #79, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈkaɪ̯nə]. Kinde is at rank #39,467, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɪndə].

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 39546, this pair ranks #1,533,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of keine vs Kinde

Shared letters: eikn. Private to "keine": -. Private to "Kinde": d.

"keine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Kinde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • keine ← ekine · keien · keinne · kenie · kiene · kkeine
  • Kinde ← iknde · kidne · kindde · kined · kinnde · kkinde · knide

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "keine" and "Kinde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "keine" is an unknown and "Kinde" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "keine" vs "Kinde" - which ranks higher?
"keine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #79 in our German list, against #39,467 for "Kinde". 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 "keine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kinde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,533,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "keine" and "Kinde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kandel vs Kinde". 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 #1,533,766 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