say

[seɪ]

/[seɪ]/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“say” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,786) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#12,786
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - sagen

Corpus desk

Index DE-say · say · German

say · rank #12,786 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,786
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH saugen

Nearest frequency peer: saugen (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „say“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „say“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

say vs so
33% similar
say vs Sc
0% similar
say vs SV
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for say
PropertyValue
Headwordsay
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[seɪ]
Letters3
Frequency rank#12,786
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „say“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.sayliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „saugen“ (#12,785), „Schlagzeug“ (#12,787), „Schreck“ (#12,788). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „say“ bei #12,786. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for say is neighbouring look-alikes ("so", "Sc", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced [seɪ]. Frequency #12,786 among 8,027 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for say, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "Sc", "SV", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is say, spelled S-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    sagen
  2. 2
    aufsagen

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how say appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He said terrible things about you.
  2. When I heard him saying the poem I fell in love with him.

This word in other languages

dire(Français)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "say"?
"say" is spelled S-A-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [seɪ].
What does "say" mean?
As a verb, "say" means: sagen
What words are commonly confused with "say"?
"say" is commonly confused with "so", "Sc", "SV". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "say"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "say" is [seɪ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "say" come from?
"say" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "say", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

RAF#12,779Fax#12,705cod#12,688DNS#12,890

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list