reibtvsreineTell them apart

Quick tell: reibt is a verb, reine is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reibt” is a verb and “reine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,897
“reibt” frequency rank
#3,068
“reine” frequency rank
27965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reibt reine
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs reiben Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs rein

Where the eye mixes reibt and reine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. reibt (CVVCC) and reine (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
reibt
5 ch
reine

Why the eye confuses reibt with reine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reibt is [ʁaɪ̯pt] while reine is [ˈʁaɪ̯nə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reibt is recorded at frequency rank #24,897, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁaɪ̯pt]. reine is at rank #3,068, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯nə].

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 27965, this pair ranks #1,792,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reibt vs reine

Shared letters: eir. Private to "reibt": bt. Private to "reine": n.

"reibt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "reine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reibt ← eribt · rebit · reibbt · reibtt · reitb · riebt · rreibt
  • reine ← erine · reien · reinne · renie · riene · rreine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reibt" for "reine" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reibt" is a verb and "reine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "reibt" or "reine" show up more?
"reine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,068 in our German list, against #24,897 for "reibt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "reibt" and "reine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reibt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,792,861 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reibt" and "reine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regst vs reibt". 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 #1,792,861 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