seinemvsseinenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#217
“seinem” frequency rank
#176
“seinen” frequency rank
393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seinem seinen
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens sein Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens sein

Where the eye mixes seinem and seinen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
seinem
6 ch
seinen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. seinem ([ˈzaɪ̯nəm]) and seinen ([ˈzaɪ̯nən]) 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 a single letter - m in “seinem” becomes n in “seinen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seinem is recorded at frequency rank #217, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nəm]. seinen is at rank #176, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nən].

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 393, this pair ranks #2,005,915 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seinem vs seinen

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

"seinem" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "seinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seinemesinem · seienm · seinemm · seinme · seinnem · seniem · sienem · sseinem
  • seinenesinen · seienn · seinenn · seinnen · senien · sienen · sseinen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seinem" and "seinen" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaɪ̯nəm] versus [ˈzaɪ̯nən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "seinem" or "seinen"?
"seinen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #176 in our German list, against #217 for "seinem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "seinem" and "seinen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seinem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seinen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,915 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seinem" and "seinen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seinen 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

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