siehevsstehnWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“siehe” and “stehn” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#800
“siehe” frequency rank
#24,938
“stehn” frequency rank
25738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature siehe stehn
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sehen stehen

Where the eye mixes siehe and stehn

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

5 ch
siehe
5 ch
stehn

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. siehe ([ˈziːə]) and stehn ([ʃteːn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

siehe is recorded at frequency rank #800, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈziːə]. stehn is at rank #24,938, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃteːn].

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 25738, this pair ranks #1,828,716 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of siehe vs stehn

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "siehe": i. Private to "stehn": nt.

"siehe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "stehn" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sieheisehe · seihe · sieeh · siehhe · sihee · ssiehe
  • stehnsethn · sstehn · stehhn · stehnn · stenh · sthen · sttehn · tsehn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "siehe" and "stehn" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈziːə] versus [ʃteːn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "siehe" or "stehn"?
"siehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #800 in our German list, against #24,938 for "stehn". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list