SagervsscherWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#33,792
“Sager” frequency rank
#36,007
“scher” frequency rank
69799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sager scher
Definition der etwas sagt 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scheren

Where the eye mixes Sager and scher

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Sager (CVCVC) and scher (CCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Sager
5 ch
scher

Why the eye confuses Sager with scher

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sager is [ˈzaːɡɐ] while scher is [ʃeːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sager is recorded at frequency rank #33,792, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaːɡɐ]. 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 69799, this pair ranks #465,613 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sager vs scher

Shared letters: ers. Private to "Sager": ag. Private to "scher": ch.

"Sager" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "scher" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sager ← asger · saegr · sagerr · sagger · sagre · sgaer · ssager
  • scher ← csher · sccher · scehr · scherr · schher · schre · shcer · sscher

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sager" for "scher" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sager" is a noun and "scher" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Sager" or "scher" show up more?
"Sager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,792 in our German list, against #36,007 for "scher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Sager" and "scher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sager" 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 #465,613 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sager" and "scher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs scher". 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 #465,613 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