meinevsMeloneWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#106
“meine” frequency rank
#29,694
“Melone” frequency rank
29800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature meine Melone
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum des Possessivpronomens mein ein in den Tropen vorkommendes Gewächs und seine große süße Frucht

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set meine and Melone apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
meine
6 ch
Melone

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meine is [ˈmaɪ̯nə] while Melone is [meˈloːnə]. 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 29800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

meine is recorded at frequency rank #106, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nə]. Melone is at rank #29,694, tagged as anoun, pronounced [meˈloːnə].

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 29800, this pair ranks #1,760,060 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of meine vs Melone

Shared letters: emn. Private to "meine": i. Private to "Melone": lo.

"meine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Melone" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • meineemine · meien · meinne · menie · mmeine
  • Meloneemlone · mellone · melnoe · meloen · melonne · meolne · mleone · mmelone

Frequency comparison

meine#106
Melone#29,694

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "meine" and "Melone" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "meine" is an unknown and "Melone" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "meine" or "Melone"?
"meine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #106 in our German list, against #29,694 for "Melone". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering meine vs Melone

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an unknown, it's “meine”; for a noun, it's “Melone”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “meine” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list