sacréesvssacrerTell them apart

Quick tell: sacrées is a adjective, sacrer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sacrées” is an adjective and “sacrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,811
“sacrées” frequency rank
#44,171
“sacrer” frequency rank
61982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacrées sacrer
Definition Féminin pluriel de sacré. Conférer un caractère sacré par le moyen de certaines cérémonies religieuses.

Same sound, different letters: sacrées vs sacrer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. sacrées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against sacrer's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
sacrées
6 ch
sacrer

Homophone desk: sacrées vs sacrer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: sacrées and sacrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sa.kʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacrées is recorded at frequency rank #17,811, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.kʁe\. sacrer is at rank #44,171, tagged as averb, pronounced \sa.kʁe\.

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 61982, this pair ranks #89,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sacrées vs sacrer

Shared letters: acers. Private to "sacrées": é. Private to "sacrer": -.

"sacrées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "sacrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacrer ← ascrer · saccrer · sacerr · sacrerr · sacrre · sacrrer · sarcer · scarer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sacrées" for "sacrer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacrées" is an adjective and "sacrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sacrées" or "sacrer"?
"sacrées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,811 in our French list, against #44,171 for "sacrer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sacrées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sacrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacrées" and "sacrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sacra vs sacrer". 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 #89,454 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