SamenvsshameConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#6,466
“Samen” frequency rank
#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
49957
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Samen shame
Definition vielzelliger Fortpflanzungskörper der Samenpflanzen jemanden beschämen

Letter map: Samen vs shame

Shared letters muted; letters that set Samen and shame apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Samen (CVCVC) and shame (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Samen
5 ch
shame

Part-of-speech tell for Samen / shame

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Samen is anoun and shameaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Samen is recorded at frequency rank #6,466, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaːmən]. shame is at rank #43,491, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 49957, this pair ranks #1,192,046 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Samen vs shame

Shared letters: aems. Private to "Samen": n. Private to "shame": h.

"Samen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Samen ← asmen · saemn · samenn · sammen · samne · smaen · ssamen
  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Samen" for "shame" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Samen" is a noun and "shame" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Samen" or "shame" show up more?
"Samen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,466 in our German list, against #43,491 for "shame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Samen" and "shame".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Samen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,192,046 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Samen" and "shame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shame". 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 #1,192,046 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