singvsSongsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#9,977
“sing” frequency rank
#3,075
“Songs” frequency rank
13052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sing Songs
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs singen Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Song

Where the eye mixes sing and Songs

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

4 ch
sing
5 ch
Songs

Visual trap between sing and Songs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sing is [zɪŋ] while Songs is [zɔŋs]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sing is recorded at frequency rank #9,977, classified as averb, pronounced [zɪŋ]. Songs is at rank #3,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced [zɔŋs].

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 13052, this pair ranks #1,960,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sing vs Songs

Shared letters: gns. Private to "sing": i. Private to "Songs": o.

"sing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Songs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singisng · singg · sinng · snig · ssing
  • Songsosngs · snogs · sogns · songgs · songss · sonngs · sonsg · ssongs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sing" and "Songs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sing" is a verb and "Songs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sing" or "Songs" show up more?
"Songs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,075 in our German list, against #9,977 for "sing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sing" and "Songs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Songs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,960,414 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sing" and "Songs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs sing". 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 #1,960,414 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