sagevssheWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sage is a adjective, she is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sage” is an adjective and “she” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,960
“sage” frequency rank
#16,015
“she” frequency rank
19975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sage she
Definition Qui est prudent, circonspect, judicieux ; qui a un sentiment juste des choses. Elle. Se réfère à une femme de la troisième personne du sujet.

Where the eye mixes sage and she

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

4 ch
sage
3 ch
she

Look-alike desk: sage vs she

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sage is \saʒ\ while she is \ʃi\. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sage is recorded at frequency rank #3,960, classified as anadj, pronounced \saʒ\. she is at rank #16,015, tagged as apron, pronounced \ʃi\.

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 19975, this pair ranks #370,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sage vs she

Shared letters: es. Private to "sage": ag. Private to "she": h.

"sage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "she" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sageasge · saeg · sagge · sgae · ssage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sage" for "she" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sage" is an adjective and "she" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sage" or "she"?
"sage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,960 in our French list, against #16,015 for "she". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sage" and "she" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "she" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sage" and "she" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "she 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 #370,571 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