bewegenvsbewegendWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,960
“bewegen” frequency rank
#39,247
“bewegend” frequency rank
41207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bewegen bewegend
Definition die Lage oder Stellung von etwas im Raum verändern; etwas von einem Ort zum anderen schaffen Partizip Präsens des Verbs bewegen

Where the eye mixes bewegen and bewegend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
bewegen
8 ch
bewegend

Why the eye confuses bewegen with bewegend

A purely visual mix-up. bewegen ([bəˈveːɡn̩]) and bewegend ([bəˈveːɡn̩t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bewegen” sits inside “bewegend”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bewegen is recorded at frequency rank #1,960, classified as averb, pronounced [bəˈveːɡn̩]. bewegend is at rank #39,247, tagged as averb, pronounced [bəˈveːɡn̩t].

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 41207, this pair ranks #1,486,233 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bewegen vs bewegend

Shared letters: begnw. Private to "bewegen": -. Private to "bewegend": d.

"bewegen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "bewegend" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bewegenbbewegen · beewgen · beweegn · bewegenn · beweggen · bewegne · bewgeen · bewwegen
  • bewegendbbewegend · beewgend · beweegnd · bewegedn · bewegendd · bewegennd · beweggend · bewegned

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bewegen" and "bewegend" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([bəˈveːɡn̩] versus [bəˈveːɡn̩t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "bewegen" or "bewegend" show up more?
"bewegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,960 in our German list, against #39,247 for "bewegend". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bewegen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bewegend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,486,233 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bewegen" and "bewegend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bewegend vs bewegenden". 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 #1,486,233 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