sein vs suis, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#63
“sein” frequency rank: #42,166
“suis” frequency rank: 42229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sein	suis
Definition	Kopula, die dem Subjekt ein logisches Prädikat zuordnet	Inessiv Plural des Substantivs suu „Mund“

Letter map: sein vs suis

Shared letters muted; letters that set sein and suis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

sein

4 ch

suis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sein is averb and suisanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sein is recorded at frequency rank #63, classified as averb, pronounced [zaɪ̯n]. suis is at rank #42,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 42229, this pair ranks #1,455,761 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sein vs suis

Shared letters: is. Private to "sein": en. Private to "suis": u.

"sein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

sein ← esin · seinn · seni · sien · ssein
suis ← sius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sein" and "suis" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sein" is a verb and "suis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "sein" or "suis"?

"sein" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #63 in our German list, against #42,166 for "suis". 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 "sein" and "suis". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "sein" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,455,761 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sein" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs suis". 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.