burningvsopenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: burning is a verb, open is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“burning” is a verb and “open” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,684
“burning” frequency rank
#2,607
“open” frequency rank
38291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature burning open
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs burn etwas ist nicht geschlossen

Letter map: burning vs open

Shared letters muted; letters that set burning and open apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

7 ch
burning
4 ch
open

Role in the sentence - burning and open

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: burning is averb and openanadjective. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

burning is recorded at frequency rank #35,684, classified as averb, pronounced […]. open is at rank #2,607, tagged as anadj, 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 38291, this pair ranks #1,567,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of burning vs open

Shared letters: n. Private to "burning": bgiru. Private to "open": eop.

"burning" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "open" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • burningbburning · bruning · bunring · burinng · burnign · burningg · burninng · burnnig
  • openoepn · openn · opne · oppen · poen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "burning" for "open" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "burning" is a verb and "open" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "burning" or "open"?
"open" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,607 in our German list, against #35,684 for "burning". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "burning" and "open".

  • Full dictionary entry for "burning" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "open" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,567,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "burning" and "open" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "burning 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 #1,567,738 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