SehervssehnenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,624
“Seher” frequency rank
#15,208
“sehnen” frequency rank
54832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Seher sehnen
Definition jemand, der sich etwas ansieht den starken Wunsch haben, dass jemand oder etwas da ist

Where the eye mixes Seher and sehnen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Seher
6 ch
sehnen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Seher is [ˈzeːɐ] while sehnen is [ˈzeːnən]. 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 54832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Seher is recorded at frequency rank #39,624, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzeːɐ]. sehnen is at rank #15,208, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzeːnən].

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 54832, this pair ranks #1,003,252 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Seher vs sehnen

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "Seher": r. Private to "sehnen": n.

"Seher" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sehnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Seheresher · seehr · seherr · sehher · sehre · sheer · sseher
  • sehneneshnen · sehhnen · sehnenn · sehnne · sehnnen · senhen · shenen · ssehnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Seher" and "sehnen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Seher" is a noun and "sehnen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Seher" or "sehnen"?
"sehnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,208 in our German list, against #39,624 for "Seher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Seher" and "sehnen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Seher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sehnen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,003,252 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Seher" and "sehnen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seher vs steter". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list