sehenvssheConfusable pair

Quick tell: sehen is a verb, she is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sehen” is a verb and “she” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#187
“sehen” frequency rank
#11,521
“she” frequency rank
11708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sehen she
Definition aktiv und passiv wahrnehmen über das Sinnesorgan Auge sie

Where the eye mixes sehen and she

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sehen
3 ch
she

Why the eye confuses sehen with she

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sehen is [ˈzeːən] while she is [ʃiː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sehen is recorded at frequency rank #187, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzeːən]. she is at rank #11,521, tagged as apron, pronounced [ʃiː].

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 11708, this pair ranks #1,968,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sehen vs she

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "sehen": n. Private to "she": -.

"sehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "she" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seheneshen · seehn · sehenn · sehhen · sheen · ssehen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sehen" for "she" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sehen" is a verb and "she" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sehen" vs "she" - which ranks higher?
"sehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #187 in our German list, against #11,521 for "she". 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 "sehen" and "she" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "she" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,968,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sehen" and "she" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs she". 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 #1,968,367 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