takingvsthingWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,767
“taking” frequency rank
#18,088
“thing” frequency rank
65855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taking thing
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs take ein materielles Objekt, ohne Bewusstsein

Letter map: taking vs thing

Shared letters muted; letters that set taking and thing apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
taking
5 ch
thing

Role in the sentence - taking and thing

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: taking is averb and thinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taking is recorded at frequency rank #47,767, classified as averb, pronounced […]. thing is at rank #18,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced [θɪŋ].

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 65855, this pair ranks #592,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of taking vs thing

Shared letters: gint. Private to "taking": ak. Private to "thing": h.

"taking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "thing" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takingatking · taikng · takign · takingg · takinng · takking · taknig · tkaing
  • thinghting · thhing · thign · thingg · thinng · thnig · tihng · tthing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "taking" for "thing" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taking" is a verb and "thing" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "taking" or "thing" show up more?
"thing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,088 in our German list, against #47,767 for "taking". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "taking" vs "thing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "taking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #592,684 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taking" and "thing" 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 #592,684 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