sagt vs say, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“sagt” and “say” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#237
“sagt” frequency rank: #12,786
“say” frequency rank: 13023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sagt	say
Definition	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sagen	sagen

Where the eye mixes sagt and say

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

4 ch

sagt

3 ch

say

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. sagt ([zaːkt]) and say ([seɪ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sagt is recorded at frequency rank #237, classified as averb, pronounced [zaːkt]. say is at rank #12,786, tagged as averb, pronounced [seɪ].

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 13023, this pair ranks #1,960,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sagt vs say

Shared letters: as. Private to "sagt": gt. Private to "say": y.

"sagt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "say" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

sagt ← asgt · saggt · sagtt · satg · sgat · ssagt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sagt" and "say" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently ([zaːkt] versus [seɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "sagt" or "say"?

"sagt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #237 in our German list, against #12,786 for "say". 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 "sagt" and "say". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "sagt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "say" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,960,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sagt" and "say" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "say vs seg". 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.