sacravssopraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sacra is a verb, sopra is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48,188
“sacra” frequency rank
#33,018
“sopra” frequency rank
81206
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacra sopra
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de sacrer. Ci-dessus, s’emploie dans les partitions.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
sacra
5 ch
sopra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sacra is \sa.kʁa\ while sopra is \sɔ.pʁa\. 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 (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacra is recorded at frequency rank #48,188, classified as averb, pronounced \sa.kʁa\. sopra is at rank #33,018, tagged as anadv, pronounced \sɔ.pʁa\.

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 81206, this pair ranks #19,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sacra vs sopra

Shared letters: ars. Private to "sacra": c. Private to "sopra": op.

"sacra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "sopra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacraascra · sacar · saccra · sacrra · sarca · scara · ssacra
  • sopraospra · sopar · soppra · soprra · sorpa · spora · ssopra

Frequency comparison

sacra#48,188
sopra#33,018

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacra" and "sopra" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacra" is a verb and "sopra" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sacra" or "sopra"?
"sopra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,018 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 sacra vs sopra

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “sacra”; for an adverb, it's “sopra”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sacra” 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