siehevsSitzeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#800
“siehe” frequency rank
#2,791
“Sitze” frequency rank
3591
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature siehe Sitze
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Sitz

Where the eye mixes siehe and Sitze

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

5 ch
siehe
5 ch
Sitze

Why the eye confuses siehe with Sitze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: siehe is [ˈziːə] while Sitze is [ˈzɪt͡sə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

siehe is recorded at frequency rank #800, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈziːə]. Sitze is at rank #2,791, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzɪt͡sə].

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 3591, this pair ranks #1,999,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of siehe vs Sitze

Shared letters: eis. Private to "siehe": h. Private to "Sitze": tz.

"siehe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Sitze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sieheisehe · seihe · sieeh · siehhe · sihee · ssiehe
  • Sitzeistze · sitez · sittze · sitzze · sizte · ssitze · stize

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "siehe" for "Sitze" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "siehe" is a verb and "Sitze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "siehe" or "Sitze"?
"siehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #800 in our German list, against #2,791 for "Sitze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "siehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sitze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,851 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "siehe" and "Sitze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sire vs Sitze". 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 #1,999,851 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