schiedvsschiefeTell them apart

Quick tell: schied is a verb, schiefe is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“schied” is a verb and “schiefe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,119
“schied” frequency rank
#33,268
“schiefe” frequency rank
50387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature schied schiefe
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs scheiden Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs schief

Where the eye mixes schied and schiefe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
schied
7 ch
schiefe

Look-alike desk: schied vs schiefe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: schied is [ʃiːt] while schiefe is [ˈʃiːfə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

schied is recorded at frequency rank #17,119, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃiːt]. schiefe is at rank #33,268, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃiːfə].

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 50387, this pair ranks #1,175,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of schied vs schiefe

Shared letters: cehis. Private to "schied": d. Private to "schiefe": f.

"schied" · 6 letters · shape CCCVVC  ·  "schiefe" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • schiedcshied · scchied · scheid · schhied · schide · schiedd · scihed · shcied
  • schiefecshiefe · scchiefe · scheife · schhiefe · schieef · schieffe · schifee · scihefe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "schied" for "schiefe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "schied" is a verb and "schiefe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "schied" or "schiefe" show up more?
"schied" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,119 in our German list, against #33,268 for "schiefe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "schied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "schiefe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,175,545 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "schied" and "schiefe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "schiefe vs Schmiere". 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 #1,175,545 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