SeilenvsstellenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,053
“Seilen” frequency rank
#370
“stellen” frequency rank
27423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Seilen stellen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Seil senkrecht, mit den Füßen den Boden, einen bestimmten Platz oder Gegenstand berührend, in eine bestimmte oder übliche Position bringen

Where the eye mixes Seilen and stellen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Seilen runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against stellen's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Seilen
7 ch
stellen

Why the eye confuses Seilen with stellen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Seilen is [ˈzaɪ̯lən] while stellen is [ˈʃtɛlən]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Seilen is recorded at frequency rank #27,053, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯lən]. stellen is at rank #370, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtɛlən].

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 27423, this pair ranks #1,802,017 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Seilen vs stellen

Shared letters: elns. Private to "Seilen": i. Private to "stellen": t.

"Seilen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "stellen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Seilen ← esilen · seieln · seilenn · seillen · seilne · selien · sielen · sseilen
  • stellen ← setllen · sstellen · steleln · stellenn · stellne · stlelen · sttellen · tsellen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Seilen" and "stellen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Seilen" is a noun and "stellen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Seilen" or "stellen" show up more?
"stellen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #370 in our German list, against #27,053 for "Seilen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Seilen" and "stellen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Seilen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stellen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,802,017 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Seilen" and "stellen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seilen vs Stilen". 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 #1,802,017 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