sacrésvssiresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,070
“sacrés” frequency rank
#48,797
“sires” frequency rank
58867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacrés sires
Definition Masculin pluriel de sacré. Pluriel de sire.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
sacrés
5 ch
sires

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sacrés is \sa.kʁe\ while sires is \siʁ\. 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 58867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacrés is recorded at frequency rank #10,070, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.kʁe\. sires is at rank #48,797, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siʁ\.

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 58867, this pair ranks #106,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sacrés vs sires

Shared letters: rs. Private to "sacrés": acé. Private to "sires": ei.

"sacrés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • siresisres · siers · siress · sirres · sirse · sries · ssires

Frequency comparison

sacrés#10,070
sires#48,797

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sacrés" and "sires" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sacrés" is an adjective and "sires" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sacrés" or "sires"?
"sacrés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,070 in our French list, against #48,797 for "sires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sacrés vs sires

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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