seinervsseinesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#142
“seiner” frequency rank
#623
“seines” frequency rank
765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seiner seines
Definition Genitiv des Personalpronomens er Genitiv Singular Maskulinum und Neutrum des Possessivpronomens sein

Where the eye mixes seiner and seines

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

6 ch
seiner
6 ch
seines

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. seiner ([ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]) and seines ([ˈzaɪ̯nəs]) 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 - r in “seiner” becomes s in “seines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seiner is recorded at frequency rank #142, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]. seines is at rank #623, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nəs].

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 765, this pair ranks #2,005,367 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seiner vs seines

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

"seiner" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "seines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seineresiner · seienr · seinerr · seinner · seinre · senier · siener · sseiner
  • seinesesines · seiens · seiness · seinnes · seinse · senies · sienes · sseines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seiner" and "seines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaɪ̯nɐ] versus [ˈzaɪ̯nəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "seiner" or "seines"?
"seiner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #142 in our German list, against #623 for "seines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list