stehenvsstehendTell them apart

Which to use

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

#297
“stehen” frequency rank
#12,595
“stehend” frequency rank
12892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stehen stehend
Definition sich auf den Beinen ohne Ortsveränderung aufhalten Partizip Präsens des Verbs stehen

Where the eye mixes stehen and stehend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
stehen
7 ch
stehend

Why the eye confuses stehen with stehend

A purely visual mix-up. stehen ([ˈʃteːən]) and stehend ([ˈʃteːənt]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “stehen” sits inside “stehend”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stehen is recorded at frequency rank #297, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃteːən]. stehend is at rank #12,595, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃteːənt].

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 12892, this pair ranks #1,961,379 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stehen vs stehend

Shared letters: ehnst. Private to "stehen": -. Private to "stehend": d.

"stehen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stehend" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stehensethen · sstehen · steehn · stehenn · stehhen · stehne · stheen · sttehen
  • stehendsethend · sstehend · steehnd · stehedn · stehendd · stehennd · stehhend · stehned

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stehen" and "stehend" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʃteːən] versus [ˈʃteːənt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "stehen" or "stehend" show up more?
"stehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #297 in our German list, against #12,595 for "stehend". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stehend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,961,379 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stehen" and "stehend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stehend vs Stelen". 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 #1,961,379 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