sehevsseidWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#573
“sehe” frequency rank
#843
“seid” frequency rank
1416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sehe seid
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen [1] 2. Person Plural Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes sehe and seid

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

4 ch
sehe
4 ch
seid

Look-alike desk: sehe vs seid

A purely visual mix-up. sehe ([ˈzeːə]) and seid ([zaɪ̯t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sehe is recorded at frequency rank #573, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzeːə]. seid is at rank #843, tagged as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯t].

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 1416, this pair ranks #2,004,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sehe vs seid

Shared letters: es. Private to "sehe": h. Private to "seid": di.

"sehe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "seid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seheeshe · seeh · sehhe · shee · ssehe
  • seidesid · sedi · seidd · sied · sseid

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sehe" and "seid" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzeːə] versus [zaɪ̯t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "sehe" or "seid" show up more?
"sehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #573 in our German list, against #843 for "seid". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,004,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sehe" and "seid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs seid". 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 #2,004,384 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