seelvsseraTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#46,271
“seel” frequency rank
#33,291
“sera” frequency rank
79562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seel sera
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs seelen Plural des Substantivs serum

Letter map: seel vs sera

Shared letters muted; letters that set seel and sera apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. seel (CVVC) and sera (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
seel
4 ch
sera

Role in the sentence - seel and sera

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seel is averb and seraanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79562, 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]. sera is at rank #33,291, tagged as anoun, 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 79562, this pair ranks #213,898 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seel vs sera

Shared letters: es. Private to "seel": l. Private to "sera": ar.

"seel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seel ← seell · sseel
  • sera ← sear · srea · ssera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seel" for "sera" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seel" is a verb and "sera" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "seel" vs "sera" - which ranks higher?
"sera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,291 in our German list, against #46,271 for "seel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "seel" vs "sera" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,898 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seel" and "sera" 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 #213,898 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