sagevssheWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sage is a verb, she is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sage” is a verb and “she” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,430
“sage” frequency rank
#11,521
“she” frequency rank
12951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sage she
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sagen sie

Where the eye mixes sage and she

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sage
3 ch
she

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sage is [ˈzaːɡə] while she is [ʃiː]. 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sage is recorded at frequency rank #1,430, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzaːɡə]. she is at rank #11,521, tagged as apron, pronounced [ʃiː].

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 12951, this pair ranks #1,961,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sage vs she

Shared letters: es. Private to "sage": ag. Private to "she": h.

"sage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "she" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sageasge · saeg · sagge · sgae · ssage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sage" and "she" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sage" is a verb and "she" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sage" or "she"?
"sage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,430 in our German list, against #11,521 for "she". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "sage" and "she". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "she" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,961,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sage" and "she" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs she". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list