TeilevsteilenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,044
“Teile” frequency rank
#1,023
“teilen” frequency rank
2067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Teile teilen
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Teil ein Ganzes in Bestandteile zerlegen

Where the eye mixes Teile and teilen

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

5 ch
Teile
6 ch
teilen

Visual trap between Teile and teilen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Teile is [ˈtaɪ̯lə] while teilen is [ˈtaɪ̯lən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Teile” sits inside “teilen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Teile is recorded at frequency rank #1,044, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈtaɪ̯lə]. teilen is at rank #1,023, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtaɪ̯lən].

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 2067, this pair ranks #2,003,170 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Teile vs teilen

Shared letters: eilt. Private to "Teile": -. Private to "teilen": n.

"Teile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "teilen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Teileetile · teiel · teille · telie · tiele · tteile
  • teilenetilen · teieln · teilenn · teillen · teilne · telien · tielen · tteilen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Teile" and "teilen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Teile" is a noun and "teilen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Teile" or "teilen" show up more?
"teilen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,023 in our German list, against #1,044 for "Teile". 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 "Teile" and "teilen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Teile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teilen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,170 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Teile" and "teilen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Teile 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 #2,003,170 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