takingvstätigTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#47,767
“taking” frequency rank
#2,181
“tätig” frequency rank
49948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taking tätig
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs take handelnd, etwas Praktisches tuend

Letter map: taking vs tätig

Shared letters muted; letters that set taking and tätig apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

6 ch
taking
5 ch
tätig

Grammar separator: taking vs tätig

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taking is averb and tätiganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taking is recorded at frequency rank #47,767, classified as averb, pronounced […]. tätig is at rank #2,181, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈtɛːtɪç].

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 49948, this pair ranks #1,192,361 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of taking vs tätig

Shared letters: git. Private to "taking": akn. Private to "tätig": ä.

"taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "tätig" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "taking" and "tätig" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taking" is a verb and "tätig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "taking" or "tätig" show up more?
"tätig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,181 in our German list, against #47,767 for "taking". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "taking" and "tätig".

  • Full dictionary entry for "taking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tätig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,192,361 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taking" and "tätig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs taking". 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 #1,192,361 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