SeesvssteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#14,668
“Sees” frequency rank
#25,778
“ste” frequency rank
40446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sees ste
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs See 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs biti

Letter map: Sees vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set Sees and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Sees
3 ch
ste

Part-of-speech tell for Sees / ste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Sees is anoun and steaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sees is recorded at frequency rank #14,668, classified as anoun, pronounced [zeːs]. ste is at rank #25,778, tagged as averb, 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 40446, this pair ranks #1,508,257 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Sees vs ste

Shared letters: es. Private to "Sees": -. Private to "ste": t.

"Sees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Seesseess · ssees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sees" for "ste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sees" is a noun and "ste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Sees" vs "ste" - which ranks higher?
"Sees" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,668 in our German list, against #25,778 for "ste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Sees" and "ste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,508,257 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sees" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs ste". 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 #1,508,257 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