Which to use
“meins” is an unknown and “meinst” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,085
- “meins” frequency rank
- #1,360
- “meinst” frequency rank
- 8445
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meins | meinst |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Neutrum bei nicht attributivem Gebrauch des Possessivpronomens mein | 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs meinen |
Where the eye mixes meins and meinst
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. meins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against meinst's 6 (CVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses meins with meinst
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meins is [maɪ̯ns] while meinst is [maɪ̯nst]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “meins” sits inside “meinst”, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meins is recorded at frequency rank #7,085, classified as anunknown, pronounced [maɪ̯ns]. meinst is at rank #1,360, tagged as averb, pronounced [maɪ̯nst].
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 8445, this pair ranks #1,984,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of meins vs meinst
Shared letters: eimns. Private to "meins": -. Private to "meinst": t.
"meins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "meinst" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "meins" for "meinst" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "meins" or "meinst" show up more?
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 "meins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meinst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,984,241 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meins" and "meinst" 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 #1,984,241 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.