pick vs pins, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pick” is a verb and “pins” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,895
“pick” frequency rank: #36,553
“pins” frequency rank: 51448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pick	pins
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs picken	Plural des Substantivs pin

Letter map: pick vs pins

Shared letters muted; letters that set pick and pins apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

pick

4 ch

pins

Grammar separator: pick vs pins

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pick is averb and pinsanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pick is recorded at frequency rank #14,895, classified as averb, pronounced [pɪk]. pins is at rank #36,553, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 51448, this pair ranks #1,135,161 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pick vs pins

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pick": ck. Private to "pins": ns.

"pick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

pick ← ipck · pcik · picck · pickk · pikc · ppick
pins ← ipns · pinns · pinss · pisn · pnis · ppins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pick" for "pins" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pick" is a verb and "pins" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "pick" or "pins" show up more?

"pick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,895 in our German list, against #36,553 for "pins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pick" and "pins".

Full dictionary entry for "pick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "pins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,135,161 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"pick" and "pins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pins vs puzzles". 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 #1,135,161 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.