sagenvsSakeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#193
“sagen” frequency rank
#47,710
“Sake” frequency rank
47903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sagen Sake
Definition bestimmte Worte sprechen (mit direkter oder indirekter Rede verwendet) japanisches alkoholisches Getränk, das aus mit Hefe vergorenem Reis hergestellt wird und heiß getrunken wird

Where the eye mixes sagen and Sake

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sagen
4 ch
Sake

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sagen is [ˈzaːɡn̩] while Sake is [ˈzaːkə]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sagen is recorded at frequency rank #193, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzaːɡn̩]. Sake is at rank #47,710, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaːkə].

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 47903, this pair ranks #1,267,840 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sagen vs Sake

Shared letters: aes. Private to "sagen": gn. Private to "Sake": k.

"sagen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Sake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sagenasgen · saegn · sagenn · saggen · sagne · sgaen · ssagen
  • Sakeaske · saek · sakke · skae · ssake

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sagen" and "Sake" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sagen" is a verb and "Sake" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sagen" or "Sake"?
"sagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #193 in our German list, against #47,710 for "Sake". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "sagen" and "Sake". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sagen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,267,840 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sagen" and "Sake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs Sire". 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