sehrvsseidWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sehr is a particle, seid is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#81
“sehr” frequency rank
#843
“seid” frequency rank
924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sehr seid
Definition in hohem Maße, besonders [1] 2. Person Plural Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes sehr and seid

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

4 ch
sehr
4 ch
seid

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sehr is [zeːɐ̯] while seid is [zaɪ̯t]. 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 (particle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sehr is recorded at frequency rank #81, classified as aparticle, pronounced [zeːɐ̯]. seid is at rank #843, tagged as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯t].

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 924, this pair ranks #2,005,150 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sehr vs seid

Shared letters: es. Private to "sehr": hr. Private to "seid": di.

"sehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "seid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sehreshr · sehhr · sehrr · serh · sher · ssehr
  • seidesid · sedi · seidd · sied · sseid

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sehr" and "seid" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sehr" is a particle and "seid" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sehr" or "seid"?
"sehr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 in our German list, against #843 for "seid". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "sehr" and "seid". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sehr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,150 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sehr" and "seid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs seid". 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