sinnenvsSündenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,747
“sinnen” frequency rank
#9,815
“Sünden” frequency rank
25562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sinnen Sünden
Definition nachdenken, grübeln Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Sünde

Where the eye mixes sinnen and Sünden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sinnen
6 ch
Sünden

Visual trap between sinnen and Sünden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sinnen is [ˈzɪnən] while Sünden is [ˈzʏndn̩]. 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 25562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sinnen is recorded at frequency rank #15,747, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈzɪnən]. Sünden is at rank #9,815, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈzʏndn̩].

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 25562, this pair ranks #1,831,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sinnen vs Sünden

Shared letters: ens. Private to "sinnen": i. Private to "Sünden": .

"sinnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Sünden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinnenisnnen · sinenn · sinnenn · sinnne · sninen · ssinnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sinnen" for "Sünden" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sinnen" is a verb and "Sünden" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sinnen" or "Sünden" show up more?
"Sünden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,815 in our German list, against #15,747 for "sinnen". 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 "sinnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sünden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,831,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sinnen" and "Sünden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sinnen vs Sonden". 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 #1,831,387 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