TankevstineTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,305
“Tanke” frequency rank
#49,303
“tine” frequency rank
81608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tanke tine
Definition Tankstelle Feuer

Letter map: Tanke vs tine

Shared letters muted; letters that set Tanke and tine apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Tanke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tine's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Tanke
4 ch
tine

Spelling & dictionary notes on Tanke vs tine

Tanke and tine are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tanke is recorded at frequency rank #32,305, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaŋkə]. tine is at rank #49,303, 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 81608, this pair ranks #172,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Tanke vs tine

Shared letters: ent. Private to "Tanke": ak. Private to "tine": i.

"Tanke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tanke ← atnke · takne · tanek · tankke · tannke · tnake · ttanke
  • tine ← itne · tien · tinne · tnie · ttine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Tanke" and "tine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "Tanke" or "tine" show up more?
"Tanke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,305 in our German list, against #49,303 for "tine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Tanke" and "tine". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tanke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #172,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tanke" and "tine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tine". 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 #172,517 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