meinevsmeinesTell them apart

Which to use

“meine” and “meines” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#106
“meine” frequency rank
#1,137
“meines” frequency rank
1243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meine meines
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum des Possessivpronomens mein Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens mein

Where the eye mixes meine and meines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
meine
6 ch
meines

Why the eye confuses meine with meines

A purely visual mix-up. meine ([ˈmaɪ̯nə]) and meines ([ˈmaɪ̯nəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “meine” sits inside “meines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meine is recorded at frequency rank #106, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nə]. meines is at rank #1,137, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nəs].

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 1243, this pair ranks #2,004,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meine vs meines

Shared letters: eimn. Private to "meine": -. Private to "meines": s.

"meine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "meines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meineemine · meien · meinne · menie · mmeine
  • meinesemines · meiens · meiness · meinnes · meinse · menies · mienes · mmeines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meine" and "meines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmaɪ̯nə] versus [ˈmaɪ̯nəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "meine" vs "meines" - which ranks higher?
"meine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #106 in our German list, against #1,137 for "meines". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "meine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "meines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,004,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "meine" and "meines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meine vs Mette". 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 #2,004,684 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