siehvssilWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,556
“sieh” frequency rank
#48,487
“sil” frequency rank
53043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sieh sil
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen Küchengerät mit vielen Löschern; Sieb

Letter map: sieh vs sil

Shared letters muted; letters that set sieh and sil apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
sieh
3 ch
sil

Grammar separator: sieh vs sil

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sieh is averb and silanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sieh is recorded at frequency rank #4,556, classified as averb, pronounced [ziː]. sil is at rank #48,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 53043, this pair ranks #1,073,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sieh vs sil

Shared letters: is. Private to "sieh": eh. Private to "sil": l.

"sieh" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sil" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • siehiseh · seih · siehh · sihe · ssieh

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sieh" and "sil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sieh" is a verb and "sil" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sieh" or "sil"?
"sieh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,556 in our German list, against #48,487 for "sil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "sieh" and "sil". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sieh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,073,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sieh" and "sil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs sil". 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 #1,073,316 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