Sehne vs sehr, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Sehne” is a noun and “sehr” is a particle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,136
“Sehne” frequency rank: #81
“sehr” frequency rank: 22217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Sehne	sehr
Definition	Band aus Bindegewebe zwischen Muskeln und Knochen zur wechselseitigen Übertragung der im Bewegungsablauf auftretenden mechanischen Kräfte	in hohem Maße, besonders

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Sehne and sehr apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

Sehne

4 ch

sehr

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sehne is [ˈzeːnə] while sehr is [zeːɐ̯]. 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 particle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sehne is recorded at frequency rank #22,136, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzeːnə]. sehr is at rank #81, tagged as aparticle, pronounced [zeːɐ̯].

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 22217, this pair ranks #1,876,881 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Sehne vs sehr

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "Sehne": n. Private to "sehr": r.

"Sehne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "sehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

Sehne ← eshne · sehhne · senhe · shene · ssehne
sehr ← eshr · sehhr · sehrr · serh · sher · ssehr

Frequency comparison

Sehne#22,136

sehr#81

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Sehne" and "sehr" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sehne" is a noun and "sehr" a particle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Sehne" or "sehr"?

"sehr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 in our German list, against #22,136 for "Sehne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Sehne vs sehr

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Sehne”; for a particle, it's “sehr”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Sehne” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable