AbgangvsangingWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#9,668
“Abgang” frequency rank
#35,053
“anging” frequency rank
44721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Abgang anging
Definition Weg, der nach unten führt; eine Treppe, eine Rampe, die abwärts führt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv der Nebensatzkonjugation des Verbs angehen

Where the eye mixes Abgang and anging

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Abgang and anging follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Abgang
6 ch
anging

Look-alike desk: Abgang vs anging

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Abgang is [ˈapˌɡaŋ] while anging is [ˈanɡɪŋ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Abgang is recorded at frequency rank #9,668, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈapˌɡaŋ]. anging is at rank #35,053, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈanɡɪŋ].

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 44721, this pair ranks #1,376,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Abgang vs anging

Shared letters: agn. Private to "Abgang": b. Private to "anging": i.

"Abgang" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "anging" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Abgang ← abagng · abbgang · abgagn · abgangg · abganng · abggang · abgnag · agbang
  • anging ← agning · angging · angign · angingg · anginng · angnig · anigng · annging

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Abgang" and "anging" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Abgang" is a noun and "anging" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Abgang" or "anging" show up more?
"Abgang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,668 in our German list, against #35,053 for "anging". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Abgang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "anging" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,376,870 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Abgang" and "anging" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abging vs anging". 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 #1,376,870 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