sichvssintTell them apart

Quick tell: sich is a pronoun, sint is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sich” is a pronoun and “sint” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20
“sich” frequency rank
#33,815
“sint” frequency rank
33835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sich sint
Definition Reflexivpronomen der dritten Person Singular 3. Person Plural Konjunktiv Präsens Aktiv des Verbs esse

Letter map: sich vs sint

Shared letters muted; letters that set sich and sint apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
sich
4 ch
sint

Grammar separator: sich vs sint

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sich is apronoun and sintaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sich is recorded at frequency rank #20, classified as apron, pronounced [zɪç]. sint is at rank #33,815, tagged as averb, 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 33835, this pair ranks #1,677,015 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sich vs sint

Shared letters: is. Private to "sich": ch. Private to "sint": nt.

"sich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sichisch · scih · sicch · sichh · sihc · ssich
  • sintisnt · sinnt · sintt · sitn · snit · ssint

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sich" for "sint" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sich" is a pronoun and "sint" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sich" vs "sint" - which ranks higher?
"sich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20 in our German list, against #33,815 for "sint". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sich" and "sint".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sint" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,677,015 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sich" and "sint" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sint". 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 #1,677,015 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