ZiegevsziehenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#16,886
“Ziege” frequency rank
#771
“ziehen” frequency rank
17657
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ziege ziehen
Definition Gattung wiederkäuender Tiere innerhalb der Familie der Hornträger mit Anwendung von Kraft hinter sich her oder auf sich zu bewegen

Where the eye mixes Ziege and ziehen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Ziege
6 ch
ziehen

Look-alike desk: Ziege vs ziehen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ziege is [ˈt͡siːɡə] while ziehen is [ˈt͡siːən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ziege is recorded at frequency rank #16,886, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡siːɡə]. ziehen is at rank #771, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈt͡siːən].

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 17657, this pair ranks #1,925,439 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ziege vs ziehen

Shared letters: eiz. Private to "Ziege": g. Private to "ziehen": hn.

"Ziege" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "ziehen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ziegeizege · zieeg · ziegge · zigee · zziege
  • ziehenizehen · zeihen · zieehn · ziehenn · ziehhen · ziehne · ziheen · zziehen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ziege" and "ziehen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ziege" is a noun and "ziehen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ziege" or "ziehen" show up more?
"ziehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #771 in our German list, against #16,886 for "Ziege". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ziege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ziehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,925,439 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ziege" and "ziehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Zehe vs Ziege". 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 #1,925,439 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