seel vs sei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,271
“seel” frequency rank: #185
“sei” frequency rank: 46456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	seel	sei
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs seelen	2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes seel and sei

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

4 ch

seel

3 ch

sei

Visual trap between seel and sei

A purely visual mix-up. seel ([zeːl]) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seel is recorded at frequency rank #46,271, classified as averb, pronounced [zeːl]. 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 46456, this pair ranks #1,318,535 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seel vs sei

Shared letters: es. Private to "seel": l. Private to "sei": i.

"seel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

seel ← seell · sseel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seel" for "sei" ever safe?

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

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

"sei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #185 in our German list, against #46,271 for "seel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "seel" 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 #1,318,535 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"seel" and "sei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seel 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 #1,318,535 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.