shinevssindWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,293
“shine” frequency rank
#34
“sind” frequency rank
33327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shine sind
Definition scheinen [1] 1. Person Plural Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes shine and sind

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

5 ch
shine
4 ch
sind

Look-alike desk: shine vs sind

A purely visual mix-up. shine ([ʃaɪn]) and sind ([zɪnt]) 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 33327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shine is recorded at frequency rank #33,293, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃaɪn]. sind is at rank #34, tagged as averb, pronounced [zɪnt].

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 33327, this pair ranks #1,688,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of shine vs sind

Shared letters: ins. Private to "shine": eh. Private to "sind": d.

"shine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "sind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shinehsine · shhine · shien · shinne · shnie · sihne · sshine
  • sindisnd · sidn · sindd · sinnd · snid · ssind

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shine" for "sind" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʃaɪn] versus [zɪnt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "shine" or "sind"?
"sind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34 in our German list, against #33,293 for "shine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "shine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sind" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,688,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shine" and "sind" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shine vs Sire". 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 #1,688,353 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