says

\sɛz\

/\sɛz\/ verb

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

The verdict

“says” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #42,038. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#42,038
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier du présent de say.

Corpus desk

Index FR-says · says · French

says · rank #42,038 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #42,038
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH saulnier

Nearest frequency peer: saulnier (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « says »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « says » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

says vs ss
50% similar
says vs sy
50% similar
says vs ses
50% similar

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

Key facts for says
PropertyValue
Headwordsays
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\sɛz\
Letters4
Frequency rank#42,038
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « says »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).saysse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « saulnier » (#42,037), « schools » (#42,039), « sarin » (#42,036). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « says » est au #42,038. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around says (IPA \sɛz\), averb. Corpus frequency is #42,038 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier du présent de say.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for says, with forms such as "asys", "sasy", and "sayss". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ss", "sy", "ses", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is says, spelled S-A-Y-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier du présent de say.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. It appears the market for top-end modern artworks is booming because, Penny says, they’re being “bought as investments, more than has ever previously been the case; they are deemed to constitute a secure ‘alternative asset class’”.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • asys
  • sasy
  • sayss
  • sayys
  • ssays
  • syas

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of says - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

asys2sasy2sayss1sayys1ssays1syas2
Edit distance from "says"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "says"?
"says" is spelled S-A-Y-S. The IPA pronunciation is \sɛz\.
What does "says" mean?
As a verb, "says" means: Troisième personne du singulier du présent de say.
What words are commonly confused with "says"?
"says" is commonly confused with "ss", "sy", "ses". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "says"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "says" is \sɛz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "says" come from?
"says" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sect#42,043saas#42,031réac#42,023soap#42,053

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

tasser6 variantsprize6 variantsvisser6 variantsnouée6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list