Which to use
“meins” is an unknown and “men” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,085
- “meins” frequency rank
- #6,327
- “men” frequency rank
- 13412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meins | men |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Neutrum bei nicht attributivem Gebrauch des Possessivpronomens mein | Plural des Substantivs man |
Where the eye mixes meins and men
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: meins vs men
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: meins is [maɪ̯ns] while men is [mɛn]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13412, 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]. men is at rank #6,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced [mɛn].
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 13412, this pair ranks #1,958,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of meins vs men
Shared letters: emn. Private to "meins": is. Private to "men": -.
"meins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "men" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- meins ← emins · meinns · meinss · meisn · menis · miens · mmeins
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "meins" and "men" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "meins" or "men" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "meins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "men" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,958,159 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meins" and "men" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "men vs Moden". 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 #1,958,159 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.