hingvshinwegWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hing is a verb, hinweg is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hing” is a verb and “hinweg” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,109
“hing” frequency rank
#3,457
“hinweg” frequency rank
13566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hing hinweg
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs hängen von dieser Stelle zu einer anderen

Where the eye mixes hing and hinweg

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

4 ch
hing
6 ch
hinweg

Look-alike desk: hing vs hinweg

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hing is [hɪŋ] while hinweg is [hɪnˈvɛk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hing is recorded at frequency rank #10,109, classified as averb, pronounced [hɪŋ]. hinweg is at rank #3,457, tagged as anadv, pronounced [hɪnˈvɛk].

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 13566, this pair ranks #1,957,168 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hing vs hinweg

Shared letters: ghin. Private to "hing": -. Private to "hinweg": ew.

"hing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hinweg" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hinghhing · hign · hingg · hinng · hnig · ihng
  • hinweghhinweg · hinewg · hinnweg · hinwegg · hinwge · hinwweg · hiwneg · hniweg

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hing" for "hinweg" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hing" is a verb and "hinweg" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hing" or "hinweg"?
"hinweg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,457 in our German list, against #10,109 for "hing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hinweg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,957,168 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hing" and "hinweg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hide vs hing". 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 #1,957,168 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