Deutsch homophones

Seen/sehen

"Seen" is a noun; "sehen" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #38 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "Seen" arrives as a noun, while "sehen" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "se" then splits - "Seen" (4 letters) vs "sehen" (5).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Seen, sehen: ens. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Seen

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory ens · no private letters vs siblings

  • sehen

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC

    Inventory ehns · private h

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Seen" when you mean: Nominativ Plural des Substantivs See
  • Write "sehen" when you mean: aktiv und passiv wahrnehmen über das Sinnesorgan Auge

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • Seenseenn · sen · sene · sseen
  • seheneshen · seehn · sehenn · sehhen · sheen · ssehen

Each spelling

Seen

noun · /ˈzeːən/ · #7,816 frequency

Nominativ Plural des Substantivs See

sehen

verb · /ˈzeːən/ · #187 frequency

aktiv und passiv wahrnehmen über das Sinnesorgan Auge

Nearby German homophone groups

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list