Which to use
“seen” and “sei” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,534
- “seen” frequency rank
- #36,154
- “sei” frequency rank
- 77688
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seen | sei |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé du verbe to see. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sein. |
Where the eye mixes seen and sei
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between seen and sei
A purely visual mix-up. seen (\siːn\) and sei (\zaɪ̯\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seen is recorded at frequency rank #41,534, classified as averb, pronounced \siːn\. sei is at rank #36,154, tagged as averb, pronounced \zaɪ̯\.
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 77688, this pair ranks #27,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of seen vs sei
Shared letters: es. Private to "seen": n. Private to "sei": i.
"seen" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- seen ← seenn · sene · sseen
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "seen" and "sei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "seen" vs "sei" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "seen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seen" and "sei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seen vs Sepp". 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 #27,688 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.