seinervsseinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#142
“seiner” frequency rank
#15,475
“seins” frequency rank
15617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seiner seins
Definition Genitiv des Personalpronomens er Nominativ Singular Neutrum bei nicht attributivem Gebrauch des Possessivpronomens sein

Where the eye mixes seiner and seins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
seiner
5 ch
seins

Look-alike desk: seiner vs seins

A purely visual mix-up. seiner ([ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]) and seins ([zaɪ̯ns]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seiner is recorded at frequency rank #142, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈzaɪ̯nɐ]. seins is at rank #15,475, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [zaɪ̯ns].

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 15617, this pair ranks #1,942,460 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seiner vs seins

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

"seiner" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "seins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seineresiner · seienr · seinerr · seinner · seinre · senier · siener · sseiner
  • seinsesins · seinns · seinss · seisn · senis · siens · sseins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seiner" and "seins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈzaɪ̯nɐ] versus [zaɪ̯ns]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "seiner" vs "seins" - which ranks higher?
"seiner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #142 in our German list, against #15,475 for "seins". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seiner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,942,460 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seiner" and "seins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seins vs spies". 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

Confusion rank #1,942,460 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list