sacrévssaveTell them apart

Quick tell: sacré is a adjective, save is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sacré” is an adjective and “save” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,385
“sacré” frequency rank
#18,317
“save” frequency rank
20702
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacré save
Definition Qui concerne la religion, qui a pour objet le culte de Dieu ou des dieux. Arrêt qui empêche l’adversaire de marquer.

Letter map: sacré vs save

Shared letters muted; letters that set sacré and save apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

5 ch
sacré
4 ch
save

Grammar separator: sacré vs save

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sacré is anadjective and saveanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20702, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacré is recorded at frequency rank #2,385, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.kʁe\. save is at rank #18,317, tagged as anoun.

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 20702, this pair ranks #366,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sacré vs save

Shared letters: as. Private to "sacré": cré. Private to "save": ev.

"sacré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "save" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saveasve · saev · savve · ssave · svae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacré" and "save" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacré" is an adjective and "save" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sacré" or "save" show up more?
"sacré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,385 in our French list, against #18,317 for "save". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sacré" and "save".

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "save" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacré" and "save" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "save vs Savoy". 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 #366,932 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list