MinevsMinusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,699
“Mine” frequency rank
#6,089
“Minus” frequency rank
16788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mine Minus
Definition Bergwerk, Stollen Fehlendes bei einer Abrechnung

Where the eye mixes Mine and Minus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mine
5 ch
Minus

Why the eye confuses Mine with Minus

A purely visual mix-up. Mine ([ˈmiːnə]) and Minus ([ˈmiːnʊs]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mine is recorded at frequency rank #10,699, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmiːnə]. Minus is at rank #6,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmiːnʊs].

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 16788, this pair ranks #1,932,983 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mine vs Minus

Shared letters: imn. Private to "Mine": e. Private to "Minus": su.

"Mine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Minus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mineimne · minne · mmine · mnie
  • Minusimnus · minnus · minsu · minuss · miuns · mminus · mnius

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Mine" for "Minus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmiːnə] versus [ˈmiːnʊs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Mine" vs "Minus" - which ranks higher?
"Minus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,089 in our German list, against #10,699 for "Mine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Minus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,932,983 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mine" and "Minus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mine vs münz". 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 #1,932,983 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