Which to use
“breaking” is a verb and “by” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,242
- “breaking” frequency rank
- #1,627
- “by” frequency rank
- 18869
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | breaking | by |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs break | Stadt |
Letter map: breaking vs by
Shared letters muted; letters that set breaking and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Role in the sentence - breaking and by
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: breaking is averb and byanoun. On the page they differ by 6 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
breaking is recorded at frequency rank #17,242, classified as averb, pronounced […]. by is at rank #1,627, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].
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 18869, this pair ranks #1,914,081 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of breaking vs by
Shared letters: b. Private to "breaking": aegiknr. Private to "by": y.
"breaking" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- breaking ← bbreaking · beraking · braeking · breaikng · breakign · breakingg · breakinng · breakking
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "breaking" and "by" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "breaking" or "by" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "breaking" and "by".
- Full dictionary entry for "breaking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,914,081 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "breaking" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breaking vs puzzles". 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 #1,914,081 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.