Which to use
“keine” is an unknown and “kleinem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #79
- “keine” frequency rank
- #13,411
- “kleinem” frequency rank
- 13490
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | keine | kleinem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum attributiv des Indefinitpronomens kein | Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs klein |
Where the eye mixes keine and kleinem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. keine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against kleinem's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: keine vs kleinem
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: keine is [ˈkaɪ̯nə] while kleinem is [ˈklaɪ̯nəm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
keine is recorded at frequency rank #79, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈkaɪ̯nə]. kleinem is at rank #13,411, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈklaɪ̯nəm].
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 13490, this pair ranks #1,957,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of keine vs kleinem
Shared letters: eikn. Private to "keine": -. Private to "kleinem": lm.
"keine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "kleinem" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "keine" and "kleinem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "keine" vs "kleinem" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "keine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kleinem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,957,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "keine" and "kleinem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kleinem vs kleinerem". 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 #1,957,655 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.