sei vs seing, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,154
“sei” frequency rank: #38,041
“seing” frequency rank: 74195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sei	seing
Definition	Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sein.	Nom de quelqu’un écrit par lui-même au bas d’une lettre, d’un acte, pour le certifier, pour le confirmer, pour le rendre valable.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sei and seing apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

sei

5 ch

seing

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sei is \zaɪ̯\ while seing is \sɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sei” sits inside “seing”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sei is recorded at frequency rank #36,154, classified as averb, pronounced \zaɪ̯\. seing is at rank #38,041, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃\.

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 74195, this pair ranks #37,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sei vs seing

Shared letters: eis. Private to "sei": -. Private to "seing": gn.

"sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "seing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

seing ← esing · seign · seingg · seinng · senig · sieng · sseing

Frequency comparison

sei#36,154

seing#38,041

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sei" and "seing" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sei" is a verb and "seing" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "sei" or "seing"?

"sei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,154 in our French list, against #38,041 for "seing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sei vs seing

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “sei”; for a noun, it's “seing”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sei” entry
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