SachervsscherWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Sacher is a name, scher is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sacher” is a name and “scher” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,952
“Sacher” frequency rank
#36,007
“scher” frequency rank
82959
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sacher scher
Definition deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scheren

Letter map: Sacher vs scher

Shared letters muted; letters that set Sacher and scher apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. Sacher runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against scher's 5 (CCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Sacher
5 ch
scher

Role in the sentence - Sacher and scher

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Sacher is aname and scheraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82959, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sacher is recorded at frequency rank #46,952, classified as aname, pronounced […]. scher is at rank #36,007, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃeːɐ̯].

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 82959, this pair ranks #148,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sacher vs scher

Shared letters: cehrs. Private to "Sacher": a. Private to "scher": -.

"Sacher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "scher" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sacher ← ascher · saccher · sacehr · sacherr · sachher · sachre · sahcer · scaher
  • scher ← csher · sccher · scehr · scherr · schher · schre · shcer · sscher

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sacher" for "scher" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sacher" is a name and "scher" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Sacher" or "scher" show up more?
"scher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,007 in our German list, against #46,952 for "Sacher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Sacher" and "scher".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sacher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "scher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sacher" and "scher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Sacher". 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 #148,055 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