sacrévssureConfusable pair

Which to use

“sacré” and “sure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,385
“sacré” frequency rank
#8,164
“sure” frequency rank
10549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacré sure
Definition Qui concerne la religion, qui a pour objet le culte de Dieu ou des dieux. Féminin singulier de sur : qui a un goût acide et aigrelet.

Where the eye mixes sacré and sure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sacré
4 ch
sure

Visual trap between sacré and sure

A purely visual mix-up. sacré (\sa.kʁe\) and sure (\syʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10549, 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\. sure is at rank #8,164, tagged as anadj, pronounced \syʁ\.

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 10549, this pair ranks #412,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sacré vs sure

Shared letters: rs. Private to "sacré": acé. Private to "sure": eu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suresrue · ssure · surre · usre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sacré" for "sure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sa.kʁe\ versus \syʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sacré" vs "sure" - which ranks higher?
"sacré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,385 in our French list, against #8,164 for "sure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacré" and "sure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sure vs suu". 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 #412,566 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