sehtvsSohnWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,847
“seht” frequency rank
#523
“Sohn” frequency rank
4370
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seht Sohn
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen männlicher, direkter Nachkomme

Where the eye mixes seht and Sohn

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

4 ch
seht
4 ch
Sohn

Look-alike desk: seht vs Sohn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seht is [zeːt] while Sohn is [zoːn]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4370, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seht is recorded at frequency rank #3,847, classified as averb, pronounced [zeːt]. Sohn is at rank #523, tagged as anoun, pronounced [zoːn].

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 4370, this pair ranks #1,997,890 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seht vs Sohn

Shared letters: hs. Private to "seht": et. Private to "Sohn": no.

"seht" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Sohn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sehtesht · sehht · sehtt · shet · sseht
  • Sohnoshn · shon · sohhn · sohnn · sonh · ssohn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "seht" and "Sohn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seht" is a verb and "Sohn" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "seht" or "Sohn" show up more?
"Sohn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #523 in our German list, against #3,847 for "seht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sohn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,997,890 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seht" and "Sohn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs seht". 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 #1,997,890 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