keinevsKinoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#79
“keine” frequency rank
#1,974
“Kino” frequency rank
2053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature keine Kino
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Indefinitpronomens kein Gebäude oder Raum, in dem Filme auf einer Leinwand vorgeführt werden

Where the eye mixes keine and Kino

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
keine
4 ch
Kino

Why the eye confuses keine with Kino

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: keine is [ˈkaɪ̯nə] while Kino is [ˈkiːno]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

keine is recorded at frequency rank #79, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈkaɪ̯nə]. Kino is at rank #1,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkiːno].

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 2053, this pair ranks #2,003,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of keine vs Kino

Shared letters: ikn. Private to "keine": e. Private to "Kino": o.

"keine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Kino" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • keineekine · keien · keinne · kenie · kiene · kkeine
  • Kinoikno · kinno · kion · kkino · knio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "keine" for "Kino" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "keine" is an unknown and "Kino" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "keine" vs "Kino" - which ranks higher?
"keine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #79 in our German list, against #1,974 for "Kino". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "keine" and "Kino" 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 "Kino" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "keine" and "Kino" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kilos vs Kino". 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 #2,003,206 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