saivssamaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,708
“sai” frequency rank
#45,559
“sama” frequency rank
93267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sai sama
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sapere Elefant

Where the eye mixes sai and sama

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sai runs 3 letters (CVV) against sama's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
sai
4 ch
sama

Look-alike desk: sai vs sama

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sai is [ˈsai̯] while sama is [sàmá]. 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 93267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sai is recorded at frequency rank #47,708, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsai̯]. sama is at rank #45,559, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sàmá].

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 93267, this pair ranks #24,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sai vs sama

Shared letters: as. Private to "sai": i. Private to "sama": m.

"sai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "sama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sama ← asma · saam · samma · smaa · ssama

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sai" for "sama" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sai" is a verb and "sama" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sai" vs "sama" - which ranks higher?
"sama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,559 in our German list, against #47,708 for "sai". 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 "sai" and "sama" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sai" and "sama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sai 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

Confusion rank #24,008 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