Which to use
“sœurs” is a noun and “sers” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,383
- “sœurs” frequency rank
- #9,390
- “sers” frequency rank
- 13773
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sœurs | sers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de sœur. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de servir. |
Where the eye mixes sœurs and sers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sœurs runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against sers's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sœurs and sers
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sœurs is \sœʁ\ while sers is \sɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sœurs is recorded at frequency rank #4,383, classified as anoun, pronounced \sœʁ\. sers is at rank #9,390, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛʁ\.
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 13773, this pair ranks #399,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sœurs vs sers
Shared letters: rs. Private to "sœurs": uœ. Private to "sers": e.
"sœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "sers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sers ← esrs · serrs · serss · sesr · sres · ssers
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sœurs" and "sers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sœurs" or "sers" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sœurs" and "sers" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sœurs" and "sers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sepp vs sers". 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 #399,595 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.