sichervssichernWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sicher is a adjective, sichern is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sicher” is an adjective and “sichern” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#270
“sicher” frequency rank
#2,856
“sichern” frequency rank
3126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sicher sichern
Definition vor Gefahren geschützt etwas vor Gefahren oder Zugriff bewahren, etwas sicher machen

Where the eye mixes sicher and sichern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sicher
7 ch
sichern

Look-alike desk: sicher vs sichern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sicher is [ˈzɪçɐ] while sichern is [ˈzɪçɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sicher” sits inside “sichern”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sicher is recorded at frequency rank #270, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈzɪçɐ]. sichern is at rank #2,856, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪçɐn].

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 3126, this pair ranks #2,000,886 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sicher vs sichern

Shared letters: cehirs. Private to "sicher": -. Private to "sichern": n.

"sicher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sichern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sicherischer · sciher · siccher · sicehr · sicherr · sichher · sichre · sihcer
  • sichernischern · scihern · sicchern · sicehrn · sichenr · sichernn · sicherrn · sichhern

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sicher" and "sichern" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sicher" is an adjective and "sichern" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sicher" or "sichern"?
"sicher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our German list, against #2,856 for "sichern". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sicher" and "sichern" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sicher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sichern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,000,886 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sicher" and "sichern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sacher vs sichern". 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 #2,000,886 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