takingvstestsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: taking is a verb, tests is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,767
“taking” frequency rank
#3,854
“tests” frequency rank
51621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taking tests
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs take Plural des Substantivs test

Letter map: taking vs tests

Shared letters muted; letters that set taking and tests apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

6 ch
taking
5 ch
tests

Role in the sentence - taking and tests

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taking is averb and testsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taking is recorded at frequency rank #47,767, classified as averb, pronounced […]. tests is at rank #3,854, tagged as anoun, 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 51621, this pair ranks #1,128,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of taking vs tests

Shared letters: t. Private to "taking": agikn. Private to "tests": es.

"taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "tests" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing
  • testsetsts · tessts · testss · testts · tetss · ttests

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "taking" for "tests" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taking" is a verb and "tests" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "taking" vs "tests" - which ranks higher?
"tests" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,854 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "taking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tests" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,128,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taking" and "tests" 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 #1,128,521 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