havingvshingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,950
“having” frequency rank
#10,109
“hing” frequency rank
54059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature having hing
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs have 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs hängen

Where the eye mixes having and hing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
having
4 ch
hing

Why the eye confuses having with hing

A purely visual mix-up. having ([ˈhavɪŋ]) and hing ([hɪŋ]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

having is recorded at frequency rank #43,950, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈhavɪŋ]. hing is at rank #10,109, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɪŋ].

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 54059, this pair ranks #1,033,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of having vs hing

Shared letters: ghin. Private to "having": av. Private to "hing": -.

"having" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "hing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • havingahving · haivng · havign · havingg · havinng · havnig · havving · hhaving
  • hinghhing · hign · hingg · hinng · hnig · ihng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "having" and "hing" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhavɪŋ] versus [hɪŋ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "having" vs "hing" - which ranks higher?
"hing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,109 in our German list, against #43,950 for "having". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "having" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,033,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "having" and "hing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hacking vs having". 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 #1,033,757 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