sacréevssucreWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,290
“sacrée” frequency rank
#2,742
“sucre” frequency rank
8032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacrée sucre
Definition Féminin singulier de sacré. Substance alimentaire de saveur douce et agréable le plus souvent sous forme cristallisée, extraite notamment de la canne à sucre et de la betterave sucrière → voir saccharose.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sacrée and sucre apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
sacrée
5 ch
sucre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sacrée is \sa.kʁe\ while sucre is \sykʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacrée is recorded at frequency rank #5,290, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.kʁe\. sucre is at rank #2,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sykʁ\.

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 8032, this pair ranks #421,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sacrée vs sucre

Shared letters: cers. Private to "sacrée": . Private to "sucre": u.

"sacrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "sucre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sucrescure · ssucre · succre · sucrre · surce · uscre

Frequency comparison

sacrée#5,290
sucre#2,742

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacrée" and "sucre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacrée" is an adjective and "sucre" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sacrée" or "sucre"?
"sucre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,742 in our French list, against #5,290 for "sacrée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sacrée vs sucre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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