say vs sei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12,786
“say” frequency rank: #185
“sei” frequency rank: 12971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	say	sei
Definition	sagen	2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes say and sei

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

say

3 ch

sei

Visual trap between say and sei

A purely visual mix-up. say ([seɪ]) and sei ([zaɪ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

say is recorded at frequency rank #12,786, classified as averb, pronounced [seɪ]. sei is at rank #185, tagged as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯].

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 12971, this pair ranks #1,960,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of say vs sei

Shared letters: s. Private to "say": ay. Private to "sei": ei.

"say" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "say" vs "sei" - which ranks higher?

"sei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #185 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "say" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,960,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"say" and "sei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "say vs seg". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,960,912 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.