scheinevsschoneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,625
“scheine” frequency rank
#25,753
“schone” frequency rank
35378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scheine schone
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scheinen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs schonen

Where the eye mixes scheine and schone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
scheine
6 ch
schone

Look-alike desk: scheine vs schone

A purely visual mix-up. scheine ([ˈʃaɪ̯nə]) and schone ([ˈʃoːnə]) 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 35378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scheine is recorded at frequency rank #9,625, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃaɪ̯nə]. schone is at rank #25,753, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃoːnə].

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 35378, this pair ranks #1,641,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of scheine vs schone

Shared letters: cehns. Private to "scheine": i. Private to "schone": o.

"scheine" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCV  ·  "schone" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scheinecsheine · sccheine · scehine · scheien · schenie · schheine · shceine · sscheine
  • schonecshone · scchone · schhone · schnoe · schoen · scohne · shcone · sschone

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "scheine" and "schone" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʃaɪ̯nə] versus [ˈʃoːnə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "scheine" or "schone" show up more?
"scheine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,625 in our German list, against #25,753 for "schone". 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 "scheine" and "schone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scheine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,641,434 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scheine" and "schone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schone vs Schopf". 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 #1,641,434 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