svssieWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: s is a abbrev, sie is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“s” is an abbrev and “sie” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#172
“s” frequency rank
#18
“sie” frequency rank
190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature s sie
Definition 19. Buchstabe des lateinischen Alphabets, Kleinbuchstabe zu „S“ Personalpronomen 3. Person Femininum Singular, welches eine zuvor benutzte Nominalphrase im Femininum (Person, Tier, Sache oder Abstraktum) ersetzt oder bei fehlendem oder weit entferntem Bezugswort auf eine Person weiblichen natürlichen Geschlechts verweist

Letter map: s vs sie

Shared letters muted; letters that set s and sie apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch
s
3 ch
sie

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: s is anabbrev and sieapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “s” sits inside “sie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

s is recorded at frequency rank #172, classified as anabbrev. sie is at rank #18, tagged as apron, pronounced [ziː].

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 190, this pair ranks #2,006,172 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of s vs sie

Shared letters: s. Private to "s": -. Private to "sie": ei.

"s" · 1 letters · shape C  ·  "sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "s" and "sie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "s" is an abbrev and "sie" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "s" or "sie"?
"sie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 in our German list, against #172 for "s". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list