BildvsbingWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#349
“Bild” frequency rank
#18,498
“bing” frequency rank
18847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Bild bing
Definition (künstlerische) zweidimensionale Darstellung und Wiedergabe in Form eines Gemäldes, einer Zeichnung oder Grafik 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs bingen

Where the eye mixes Bild and bing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Bild
4 ch
bing

Why the eye confuses Bild with bing

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Bild is [bɪlt] while bing is [bɪnd͡ʒ]. 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 18847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Bild is recorded at frequency rank #349, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɪlt]. bing is at rank #18,498, tagged as averb, pronounced [bɪnd͡ʒ].

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 18847, this pair ranks #1,914,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Bild vs bing

Shared letters: bi. Private to "Bild": dl. Private to "bing": gn.

"Bild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Bildbbild · bidl · bildd · billd · blid · ibld
  • bingbbing · bign · bingg · binng · bnig · ibng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Bild" and "bing" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Bild" is a noun and "bing" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Bild" or "bing"?
"Bild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #349 in our German list, against #18,498 for "bing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Bild" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,914,323 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Bild" and "bing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bims vs bing". 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 #1,914,323 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