siesvsSireWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#40,209
“sies” frequency rank
#48,488
“Sire” frequency rank
88697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sies Sire
Definition archaisch: 2. Person Singular Konjunktiv Präsens Aktiv des Verbs esse veraltete (französische) Höflichkeitsanrede für Männer, insbesondere oder ausschließlich dem König/Kaiser vorbehalten

Letter map: sies vs Sire

Shared letters muted; letters that set sies and Sire apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sies (CVVC) and Sire (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sies
4 ch
Sire

Role in the sentence - sies and Sire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sies is averb and Sireanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sies is recorded at frequency rank #40,209, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Sire is at rank #48,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ziːɐ̯].

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 88697, this pair ranks #65,464 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sies vs Sire

Shared letters: eis. Private to "sies": -. Private to "Sire": r.

"sies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sies ← seis · siess · sise · ssies
  • Sire ← isre · sier · sirre · srie · ssire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sies" and "Sire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sies" is a verb and "Sire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sies" or "Sire" show up more?
"sies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,209 in our German list, against #48,488 for "Sire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "sies" vs "Sire" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,464 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sies" and "Sire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sil vs Sire". 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 #65,464 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