tinevstrueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tine is a noun, true is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,303
“tine” frequency rank
#9,645
“true” frequency rank
58948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tine true
Definition Feuer wahr, richtig

Letter map: tine vs true

Shared letters muted; letters that set tine and true apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
tine
4 ch
true

Grammar separator: tine vs true

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tine is anoun and trueanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tine is recorded at frequency rank #49,303, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. true is at rank #9,645, tagged as anadj, pronounced [tɹuː].

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 58948, this pair ranks #843,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tine vs true

Shared letters: et. Private to "tine": in. Private to "true": ru.

"tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "true" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tineitne · tien · tinne · tnie · ttine
  • truertue · trrue · ttrue · ture

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tine" and "true" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tine" is a noun and "true" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "tine" or "true" show up more?
"true" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,645 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "true" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #843,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tine" and "true" 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 #843,113 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