Which to use
“meinen” is a verb and “meins” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #280
- “meinen” frequency rank
- #7,085
- “meins” frequency rank
- 7365
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meinen | meins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | einen bestimmten Standpunkt oder eine bestimmte Meinung vertreten | Nominativ Singular Neutrum bei nicht attributivem Gebrauch des Possessivpronomens mein |
Where the eye mixes meinen and meins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between meinen and meins
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meinen is [ˈmaɪ̯nən] while meins is [maɪ̯ns]. 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 (verb vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meinen is recorded at frequency rank #280, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯nən]. meins is at rank #7,085, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [maɪ̯ns].
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 7365, this pair ranks #1,988,425 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of meinen vs meins
Shared letters: eimn. Private to "meinen": -. Private to "meins": s.
"meinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "meins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "meinen" and "meins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "meinen" or "meins"?
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 "meinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,988,425 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meinen" and "meins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meins vs Melina". 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 #1,988,425 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.