sitvssitztTell them apart

Quick tell: sit is a unknown, sitzt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sit” is an unknown and “sitzt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,040
“sit” frequency rank
#1,334
“sitzt” frequency rank
20374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sit sitzt
Definition Neutrum Singular des Possessivpronomens sin 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sitzen

Where the eye mixes sit and sitzt

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

3 ch
sit
5 ch
sitzt

Visual trap between sit and sitzt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sit is [ˈsid̥] while sitzt is [zɪt͡st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sit” sits inside “sitzt”, and the parts of speech differ too (unknown vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sit is recorded at frequency rank #19,040, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈsid̥]. sitzt is at rank #1,334, tagged as averb, pronounced [zɪt͡st].

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 20374, this pair ranks #1,898,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sit vs sitzt

Shared letters: ist. Private to "sit": -. Private to "sitzt": z.

"sit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sitzt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sitztistzt · sittz · sittzt · sitztt · sitzzt · siztt · ssitzt · stizt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sit" and "sitzt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sit" is an unknown and "sitzt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sit" vs "sitzt" - which ranks higher?
"sitzt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,334 in our German list, against #19,040 for "sit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sitzt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,898,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sit" and "sitzt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs sit". 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 #1,898,380 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