seinenvsseinerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#176
“seinen” frequency rank
#142
“seiner” frequency rank
318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seinen seiner
Definition Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens sein Genitiv des Personalpronomens er

Where the eye mixes seinen and seiner

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

6 ch
seinen
6 ch
seiner

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. seinen ([ˈzaɪ̯nən]) and seiner ([ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]) 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 - n in “seinen” becomes r in “seiner”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seinen is recorded at frequency rank #176, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nən]. seiner is at rank #142, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nɐ].

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 318, this pair ranks #2,006,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seinen vs seiner

Shared letters: eins. Private to "seinen": -. Private to "seiner": r.

"seinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "seiner" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seinenesinen · seienn · seinenn · seinnen · senien · sienen · sseinen
  • seineresiner · seienr · seinerr · seinner · seinre · senier · siener · sseiner

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seinen" and "seiner" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaɪ̯nən] versus [ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "seinen" or "seiner"?
"seiner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #142 in our German list, against #176 for "seinen". 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 "seinen" and "seiner". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seiner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,006,000 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seinen" and "seiner" 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