SacemvssacraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Sacem is a name, sacra is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sacem” is a name and “sacra” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,247
“Sacem” frequency rank
#48,188
“sacra” frequency rank
79435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sacem sacra
Definition Société française de gestion des droits d’auteur dans le domaine musical. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de sacrer.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
Sacem
5 ch
sacra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sacem is \sa.sɛm\ while sacra is \sa.kʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sacem is recorded at frequency rank #31,247, classified as aname, pronounced \sa.sɛm\. sacra is at rank #48,188, tagged as averb, pronounced \sa.kʁa\.

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 79435, this pair ranks #23,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sacem vs sacra

Shared letters: acs. Private to "Sacem": em. Private to "sacra": r.

"Sacem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sacra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sacemascem · saccem · sacemm · sacme · saecm · scaem · ssacem
  • sacraascra · sacar · saccra · sacrra · sarca · scara · ssacra

Frequency comparison

Sacem#31,247
sacra#48,188

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Sacem" and "sacra" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sacem" is a name and "sacra" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Sacem" or "sacra"?
"Sacem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,247 in our French list, against #48,188 for "sacra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Sacem vs sacra

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “Sacem”; for a verb, it's “sacra”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Sacem” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list