doivsdoingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,427
“doi” frequency rank
#31,509
“doing” frequency rank
73936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doi doing
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs doić Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs do

Where the eye mixes doi and doing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
doi
5 ch
doing

Look-alike desk: doi vs doing

A purely visual mix-up. doi ([ˈdɔji]) and doing ([ˈduːɪŋ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “doi” sits inside “doing”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doi is recorded at frequency rank #42,427, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈdɔji]. doing is at rank #31,509, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈduːɪŋ].

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 73936, this pair ranks #346,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of doi vs doing

Shared letters: dio. Private to "doi": -. Private to "doing": gn.

"doi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "doing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doingddoing · diong · doign · doingg · doinng · donig · oding

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "doi" for "doing" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdɔji] versus [ˈduːɪŋ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "doi" or "doing"?
"doing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,509 in our German list, against #42,427 for "doi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "doi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doi" and "doing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doi vs dörr". 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 #346,971 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