playingvsvideoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#34,851
“playing” frequency rank
#654
“video” frequency rank
35505
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature playing video
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs play Video-

Letter map: playing vs video

Shared letters muted; letters that set playing and video apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

7 ch
playing
5 ch
video

Role in the sentence - playing and video

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: playing is averb and videoanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35505, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

playing is recorded at frequency rank #34,851, classified as averb, pronounced […]. video is at rank #654, 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 35505, this pair ranks #1,638,426 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of playing vs video

Shared letters: i. Private to "playing": aglnpy. Private to "video": deov.

"playing" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC  ·  "video" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • playinglpaying · palying · plaiyng · playign · playingg · playinng · playnig · playying
  • videoivdeo · vdieo · viddeo · vidoe · viedo · vvideo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "playing" for "video" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "playing" is a verb and "video" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "playing" or "video"?
"video" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #654 in our German list, against #34,851 for "playing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "playing" and "video".

  • Full dictionary entry for "playing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "video" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,638,426 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "playing" and "video" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "playing 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 #1,638,426 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