seidvssensTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#843
“seid” frequency rank
#42,806
“sens” frequency rank
43649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seid sens
Definition [1] 2. Person Plural Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein Bedeutung; Sinn

Where the eye mixes seid and sens

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

4 ch
seid
4 ch
sens

Why the eye confuses seid with sens

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seid is [zaɪ̯t] while sens is [sɑ̃s]. 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 43649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seid is recorded at frequency rank #843, classified as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯t]. sens is at rank #42,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sɑ̃s].

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 43649, this pair ranks #1,411,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seid vs sens

Shared letters: es. Private to "seid": di. Private to "sens": n.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seidesid · sedi · seidd · sied · sseid
  • sensesns · senns · senss · sesn · snes · ssens

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seid" for "sens" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seid" is a verb and "sens" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seid" or "sens"?
"seid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #843 in our German list, against #42,806 for "sens". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "seid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,411,334 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seid" and "sens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs sens". 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 #1,411,334 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