Which to use
“sich” is a pronoun and “Sire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20
- “sich” frequency rank
- #48,488
- “Sire” frequency rank
- 48508
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sich | Sire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Reflexivpronomen der dritten Person Singular | veraltete (französische) Höflichkeitsanrede für Männer, insbesondere oder ausschließlich dem König/Kaiser vorbehalten |
Where the eye mixes sich and Sire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sich (CVCC) and Sire (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between sich and Sire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sich is [zɪç] while Sire is [ziːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sich is recorded at frequency rank #20, classified as apron, pronounced [zɪç]. Sire is at rank #48,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ziːɐ̯].
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 48508, this pair ranks #1,246,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sich vs Sire
Shared letters: is. Private to "sich": ch. Private to "Sire": er.
"sich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "Sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sich" for "Sire" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "sich" or "Sire" show up more?
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 "sich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Sire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,246,001 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sich" and "Sire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sil vs Sire". 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 #1,246,001 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.