seienvsSkierWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#782
“seien” frequency rank
#46,283
“Skier” frequency rank
47065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seien Skier
Definition 1. Person Plural Konjunktiv I Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sein Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Ski

Where the eye mixes seien and Skier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
seien
5 ch
Skier

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seien is [ˈzaɪ̯ən] while Skier is [ˈʃiːɐ]. 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 47065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seien is recorded at frequency rank #782, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯ən]. Skier is at rank #46,283, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃiːɐ].

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 47065, this pair ranks #1,297,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seien vs Skier

Shared letters: eis. Private to "seien": n. Private to "Skier": kr.

"seien" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "Skier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seienesien · seein · sieen · sseien
  • Skierksier · siker · skeir · skierr · skire · skkier · sskier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seien" and "Skier" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seien" is a verb and "Skier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seien" or "Skier"?
"seien" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #782 in our German list, against #46,283 for "Skier". 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 "seien" and "Skier". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Skier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,297,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seien" and "Skier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Skier vs sniper". 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