thinevstinkWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: thine is a determiner, tink is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“thine” is a determiner and “tink” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,485
“thine” frequency rank
#40,928
“tink” frequency rank
60413
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thine tink
Definition Second-person singular prevocalic possessive determiner (preconsonantal form: thy). To emit a high-pitched sharp or metallic noise.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set thine and tink apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
thine
4 ch
tink

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thine is /ðaɪn/ while tink is /tɪŋk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thine is recorded at frequency rank #19,485, classified as adet, pronounced /ðaɪn/. tink is at rank #40,928, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɪŋk/.

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 60413, this pair ranks #100,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of thine vs tink

Shared letters: int. Private to "thine": eh. Private to "tink": k.

"thine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "tink" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thinehtine · thhine · thien · thinne · thnie · tihne · tthine
  • tinkitnk · tikn · tinkk · tinnk · tnik · ttink

Frequency comparison

thine#19,485
tink#40,928

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thine" and "tink" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thine" is a determiner and "tink" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "thine" or "tink"?
"thine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,485 in our English list, against #40,928 for "tink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering thine vs tink

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a determiner, it's “thine”; for a verb, it's “tink”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “thine” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list