sehr vs sei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#81
“sehr” frequency rank: #185
“sei” frequency rank: 266
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sehr	sei
Definition	in hohem Maße, besonders	2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes sehr and sei

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

4 ch

sehr

3 ch

sei

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sehr is [zeːɐ̯] while sei is [zaɪ̯]. 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 (particle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sehr is recorded at frequency rank #81, classified as aparticle, pronounced [zeːɐ̯]. sei is at rank #185, tagged as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯].

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 266, this pair ranks #2,006,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sehr vs sei

Shared letters: es. Private to "sehr": hr. Private to "sei": i.

"sehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

sehr ← eshr · sehhr · sehrr · serh · sher · ssehr

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"sehr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 in our German list, against #185 for "sei". 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 "sehr" and "sei". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "sehr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #2,006,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sehr" and "sei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs sei". 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.