tinevstrinkWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,303
“tine” frequency rank
#10,759
“trink” frequency rank
60062
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tine trink
Definition Feuer 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs trinken

Letter map: tine vs trink

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

4 ch
tine
5 ch
trink

Role in the sentence - tine and trink

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tine is anoun and trinkaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tine is recorded at frequency rank #49,303, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. trink is at rank #10,759, tagged as averb, pronounced [tʁɪŋk].

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 60062, this pair ranks #801,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tine vs trink

Shared letters: int. Private to "tine": e. Private to "trink": kr.

"tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "trink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tine ← itne · tien · tinne · tnie · ttine
  • trink ← rtink · tirnk · trikn · trinkk · trinnk · trnik · trrink · ttrink

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tine" and "trink" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tine" is a noun and "trink" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tine" or "trink"?
"trink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,759 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.

Useful next steps

Pair "tine" vs "trink" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "trink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #801,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tine" and "trink" 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 #801,040 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