abbiegenvsabziehenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,222
“abbiegen” frequency rank
#10,990
“abziehen” frequency rank
25212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abbiegen abziehen
Definition die Form eines Gegenstandes bogenartig verändern sich entfernen

Where the eye mixes abbiegen and abziehen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. abbiegen and abziehen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
abbiegen
8 ch
abziehen

Visual trap between abbiegen and abziehen

A purely visual mix-up. abbiegen ([ˈapˌbiːɡŋ̩]) and abziehen ([ˈapˌt͡siːən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abbiegen is recorded at frequency rank #14,222, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈapˌbiːɡŋ̩]. abziehen is at rank #10,990, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈapˌt͡siːən].

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 25212, this pair ranks #1,836,508 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abbiegen vs abziehen

Shared letters: abein. Private to "abbiegen": g. Private to "abziehen": hz.

"abbiegen" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "abziehen" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abbiegen ← abbeigen · abbieegn · abbiegenn · abbieggen · abbiegne · abbigeen · abibegen · abiegen
  • abziehen ← abbziehen · abizehen · abzeihen · abzieehn · abziehenn · abziehhen · abziehne · abziheen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abbiegen" and "abziehen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈapˌbiːɡŋ̩] versus [ˈapˌt͡siːən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "abbiegen" or "abziehen" show up more?
"abziehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,990 in our German list, against #14,222 for "abbiegen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "abbiegen" and "abziehen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abbiegen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abziehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,836,508 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abbiegen" and "abziehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abbiegen vs abzielen". 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 #1,836,508 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