saysvsSimsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#44,888
“says” frequency rank
#21,769
“Sims” frequency rank
66657
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature says Sims
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs say waagrechter, langgestreckter, oftmals kunstvoll gestalteter Wandvorsprung an einem Haus

Where the eye mixes says and Sims

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

4 ch
says
4 ch
Sims

Visual trap between says and Sims

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: says is [sɛz] while Sims is [zɪms]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

says is recorded at frequency rank #44,888, classified as averb, pronounced [sɛz]. Sims is at rank #21,769, tagged as anoun, pronounced [zɪms].

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 66657, this pair ranks #565,896 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of says vs Sims

Shared letters: s. Private to "says": ay. Private to "Sims": im.

"says" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Sims" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saysasys · sasy · sayss · sayys · ssays · syas
  • Simsisms · simms · simss · sism · smis · ssims

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "says" and "Sims" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "says" is a verb and "Sims" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "says" or "Sims" show up more?
"Sims" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,769 in our German list, against #44,888 for "says". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "says" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sims" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #565,896 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "says" and "Sims" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "says vs SUVs". 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 #565,896 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