fliegvsflyingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,550
“flieg” frequency rank
#23,936
“flying” frequency rank
49486
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flieg flying
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fliegen Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs fly

Letter map: flieg vs flying

Shared letters muted; letters that set flieg and flying apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
flieg
6 ch
flying

Corpus notes: flieg and flying

flieg and flying are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flieg is recorded at frequency rank #25,550, classified as averb, pronounced [fliːk]. flying is at rank #23,936, tagged as averb, 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 49486, this pair ranks #1,209,708 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flieg vs flying

Shared letters: fgil. Private to "flieg": e. Private to "flying": ny.

"flieg" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "flying" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fliegfflieg · fileg · fleig · fliegg · flige · fllieg · lfieg
  • flyingfflying · fliyng · fllying · flyign · flyingg · flyinng · flynig · flyying

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flieg" for "flying" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "flieg" vs "flying" - which ranks higher?
"flying" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,936 in our German list, against #25,550 for "flieg". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "flieg" vs "flying" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flieg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flying" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,209,708 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flieg" and "flying" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flying 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 #1,209,708 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