seidvsserWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“seid” and “ser” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#843
“seid” frequency rank
#16,824
“ser” frequency rank
17667
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seid ser
Definition [1] 2. Person Plural Präsens Indikativ des Verbs sein sein

Where the eye mixes seid and ser

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

4 ch
seid
3 ch
ser

Visual trap between seid and ser

A purely visual mix-up. seid ([zaɪ̯t]) and ser ([sɛ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seid is recorded at frequency rank #843, classified as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯t]. ser is at rank #16,824, tagged as averb, pronounced [sɛ].

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 17667, this pair ranks #1,925,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seid vs ser

Shared letters: es. Private to "seid": di. Private to "ser": r.

"seid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "ser" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seidesid · sedi · seidd · sied · sseid

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "seid" for "ser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([zaɪ̯t] versus [sɛ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "seid" or "ser" show up more?
"seid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #843 in our German list, against #16,824 for "ser". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,925,353 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seid" and "ser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ser vs serra". 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 #1,925,353 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