sensvssuisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,806
“sens” frequency rank
#42,166
“suis” frequency rank
84972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sens suis
Definition Bedeutung; Sinn Inessiv Plural des Substantivs suu „Mund“

Letter map: sens vs suis

Shared letters muted; letters that set sens and suis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. sens (CVCC) and suis (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sens
4 ch
suis

Pair insight - sens / suis

sens and suis are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sens is recorded at frequency rank #42,806, classified as anoun, pronounced [sɑ̃s]. suis is at rank #42,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 84972, this pair ranks #115,413 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sens vs suis

Shared letters: s. Private to "sens": en. Private to "suis": iu.

"sens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "suis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sens ← esns · senns · senss · sesn · snes · ssens
  • suis ← sius · ssuis · suiss · susi · usis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sens" and "suis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "sens" or "suis" show up more?
"suis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,166 in our German list, against #42,806 for "sens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sens" and "suis".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,413 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sens" and "suis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs suis". 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 #115,413 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