saignévssaignentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,358
“saigné” frequency rank
#38,530
“saignent” frequency rank
68888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saigné saignent
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de saigner. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de saigner.

Where the eye mixes saigné and saignent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. saigné runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against saignent's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
saigné
8 ch
saignent

Visual trap between saigné and saignent

A purely visual mix-up. saigné (\se.ɲe\) and saignent (\sɛɲ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saigné is recorded at frequency rank #30,358, classified as averb, pronounced \se.ɲe\. saignent is at rank #38,530, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛɲ\.

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 68888, this pair ranks #57,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saigné vs saignent

Shared letters: agins. Private to "saigné": é. Private to "saignent": et.

"saigné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "saignent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saignentasignent · saginent · saigennt · saiggnent · saignennt · saignentt · saignetn · saignnent

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "saigné" and "saignent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\se.ɲe\ versus \sɛɲ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "saigné" vs "saignent" - which ranks higher?
"saigné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,358 in our French list, against #38,530 for "saignent". 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 "saigné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saignent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saigné" and "saignent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saignant vs saignent". 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 #57,321 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