RillenvsrinnenTell them apart

Quick tell: Rillen is a noun, rinnen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48,426
“Rillen” frequency rank
#46,945
“rinnen” frequency rank
95371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rillen rinnen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Rille langsam und in geringer Menge fließen

Where the eye mixes Rillen and rinnen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Rillen and rinnen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Rillen
6 ch
rinnen

Visual trap between Rillen and rinnen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Rillen is [ˈʁɪlən] while rinnen is [ˈʁɪnən]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rillen is recorded at frequency rank #48,426, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁɪlən]. rinnen is at rank #46,945, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʁɪnən].

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 95371, this pair ranks #11,972 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Rillen vs rinnen

Shared letters: einr. Private to "Rillen": l. Private to "rinnen": -.

"Rillen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rinnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rillen ← irllen · rileln · rilen · rillenn · rillne · rlilen · rrillen
  • rinnen ← irnnen · rinenn · rinnenn · rinnne · rninen · rrinnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Rillen" for "rinnen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rillen" is a noun and "rinnen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Rillen" or "rinnen" show up more?
"rinnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,945 in our German list, against #48,426 for "Rillen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rillen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rinnen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,972 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rillen" and "rinnen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raunen vs rinnen". 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 #11,972 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