sehevsSireConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#573
“sehe” frequency rank
#48,488
“Sire” frequency rank
49061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sehe Sire
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen veraltete (französische) Höflichkeitsanrede für Männer, insbesondere oder ausschließlich dem König/Kaiser vorbehalten

Where the eye mixes sehe and Sire

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

4 ch
sehe
4 ch
Sire

Visual trap between sehe and Sire

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sehe is [ˈzeːə] while Sire is [ziːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sehe is recorded at frequency rank #573, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzeːə]. Sire is at rank #48,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ziːɐ̯].

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 49061, this pair ranks #1,225,516 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sehe vs Sire

Shared letters: es. Private to "sehe": h. Private to "Sire": ir.

"sehe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seheeshe · seeh · sehhe · shee · ssehe
  • Sireisre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sehe" and "Sire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sehe" is a verb and "Sire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sehe" or "Sire"?
"sehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #573 in our German list, against #48,488 for "Sire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,225,516 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sehe" and "Sire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sil vs Sire". 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 #1,225,516 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