seienvsseinemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: seien is a verb, seinem is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seien” is a verb and “seinem” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#782
“seien” frequency rank
#217
“seinem” frequency rank
999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seien seinem
Definition 1. Person Plural Konjunktiv I Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sein Dativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens sein

Where the eye mixes seien and seinem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
seien
6 ch
seinem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seien is [ˈzaɪ̯ən] while seinem is [ˈzaɪ̯nəm]. 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 (verb vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seien is recorded at frequency rank #782, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯ən]. seinem is at rank #217, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nəm].

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 999, this pair ranks #2,005,044 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seien vs seinem

Shared letters: eins. Private to "seien": -. Private to "seinem": m.

"seien" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "seinem" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seienesien · seein · sieen · sseien
  • seinemesinem · seienm · seinemm · seinme · seinnem · seniem · sienem · sseinem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seien" and "seinem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seien" is a verb and "seinem" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seien" or "seinem"?
"seinem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #217 in our German list, against #782 for "seien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list