seinenvssingenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: seinen is a unknown, singen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seinen” is an unknown and “singen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#176
“seinen” frequency rank
#2,319
“singen” frequency rank
2495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seinen singen
Definition Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens sein ein Lied (oder eine Melodie) mit der eigenen Stimme hervorbringen

Where the eye mixes seinen and singen

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

6 ch
seinen
6 ch
singen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seinen is [ˈzaɪ̯nən] while singen is [ˈzɪŋən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seinen is recorded at frequency rank #176, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nən]. singen is at rank #2,319, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪŋən].

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 2495, this pair ranks #2,002,221 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seinen vs singen

Shared letters: eins. Private to "seinen": -. Private to "singen": g.

"seinen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "singen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seinenesinen · seienn · seinenn · seinnen · senien · sienen · sseinen
  • singenisngen · signen · sinegn · singenn · singgen · singne · sinngen · snigen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seinen" and "singen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seinen" is an unknown and "singen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seinen" or "singen"?
"seinen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #176 in our German list, against #2,319 for "singen". 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 "seinen" and "singen". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seinen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "singen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,002,221 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seinen" and "singen" 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