sievsstuTell them apart

Quick tell: sie is a pronoun, stu is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sie” is a pronoun and “stu” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18
“sie” frequency rank
#47,032
“stu” frequency rank
47050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sie stu
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 Dativ Singular des Numerales sto

Where the eye mixes sie and stu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
sie
3 ch
stu

Visual trap between sie and stu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sie is [ziː] while stu is [stʊ]. 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 unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sie is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced [ziː]. stu is at rank #47,032, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [stʊ].

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 47050, this pair ranks #1,297,888 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sie vs stu

Shared letters: s. Private to "sie": ei. Private to "stu": tu.

"sie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "stu" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sie" and "stu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sie" is a pronoun and "stu" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sie" or "stu"?
"sie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 in our German list, against #47,032 for "stu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,297,888 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sie" and "stu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs stu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,297,888 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