seivsseisTell them apart

Which to use

“sei” and “seis” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,072
“sei” frequency rank
#596
“seis” frequency rank
48668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sei seis
Definition Seis. Cinco y uno.

Where the eye mixes sei and seis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sei runs 3 letters (CVV) against seis's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
sei
4 ch
seis

Why the eye confuses sei with seis

A purely visual mix-up. sei (/s̺ej/) and seis ([ˈsejs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sei” sits inside “seis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sei is recorded at frequency rank #48,072, classified as anum, pronounced /s̺ej/. seis is at rank #596, tagged as anum, pronounced [ˈsejs].

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 48668, this pair ranks #113,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sei vs seis

Shared letters: eis. Private to "sei": -. Private to "seis": -.

"sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "seis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seis ← ceis · esis · seiss · sesi · sies · sseis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sei" for "seis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/s̺ej/ versus [ˈsejs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sei" or "seis"?
"seis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #596 in our Spanish list, against #48,072 for "sei". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sei" and "seis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs stem". 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 #113,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list