Which to use
“sie” is a pronoun and “spies” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18
- “sie” frequency rank
- #43,504
- “spies” frequency rank
- 43522
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sie | spies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personalpronomen 3. Person Femininum Singular, welches eine zuvor benutzte Nominalphrase im Femininum (Person, Tier, Sache oder Abstraktum) ersetzt oder bei fehlendem oder weit entferntem Bezugswort auf eine Person weiblichen natürlichen Geschlechts verweist | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs speisen |
Where the eye mixes sie and spies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sie and spies
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sie is [ziː] while spies is [ʃpiːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sie is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced [ziː]. spies is at rank #43,504, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃpiːs].
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 43522, this pair ranks #1,415,413 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sie vs spies
Shared letters: eis. Private to "sie": -. Private to "spies": p.
"sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "spies" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- spies ← psies · sipes · speis · spiess · spise · sppies · sspies
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sie" and "spies" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sie" or "spies"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sie" and "spies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,415,413 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sie" and "spies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Skier 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 #1,415,413 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.