SiebvssiehtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Sieb is a noun, sieht is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sieb” is a noun and “sieht” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,309
“Sieb” frequency rank
#253
“sieht” frequency rank
25562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sieb sieht
Definition Schale oder Fläche mit Löchern zum Trennen gemischter verschiedenartiger Bestandteile; auch im übertragenen Sinne verwendet (Sieb des Eratosthenes) 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen

Where the eye mixes Sieb and sieht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Sieb
5 ch
sieht

Look-alike desk: Sieb vs sieht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sieb is [ziːp] while sieht is [ziːt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sieb is recorded at frequency rank #25,309, classified as anoun, pronounced [ziːp]. sieht is at rank #253, tagged as averb, pronounced [ziːt].

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 25562, this pair ranks #1,831,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Sieb vs sieht

Shared letters: eis. Private to "Sieb": b. Private to "sieht": ht.

"Sieb" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sieht" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Siebiseb · seib · sibe · siebb · ssieb
  • siehtiseht · seiht · siehht · siehtt · sieth · sihet · ssieht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Sieb" and "sieht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sieb" is a noun and "sieht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Sieb" vs "sieht" - which ranks higher?
"sieht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #253 in our German list, against #25,309 for "Sieb". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sieb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sieht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,831,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sieb" and "sieht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs Sieb". 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 #1,831,387 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