SegelvsseheWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#12,583
“Segel” frequency rank
#573
“sehe” frequency rank
13156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Segel sehe
Definition Stück Stoff zur Nutzung des Windes für die Fortbewegung von Schiffen, Fluggeräten und Fahrzeugen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen

Where the eye mixes Segel and sehe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Segel runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against sehe's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Segel
4 ch
sehe

Visual trap between Segel and sehe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Segel is [ˈzeːɡl̩] while sehe is [ˈzeːə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Segel is recorded at frequency rank #12,583, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzeːɡl̩]. sehe is at rank #573, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzeːə].

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 13156, this pair ranks #1,959,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Segel vs sehe

Shared letters: es. Private to "Segel": gl. Private to "sehe": h.

"Segel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sehe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Segel ← esgel · seegl · segell · seggel · segle · sgeel · ssegel
  • sehe ← eshe · seeh · sehhe · shee · ssehe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Segel" and "sehe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Segel" is a noun and "sehe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Segel" or "sehe" show up more?
"sehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #573 in our German list, against #12,583 for "Segel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Segel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sehe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,766 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Segel" and "sehe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs Segel". 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 #1,959,766 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