saignévssignéeTell them apart

Quick tell: saigné is a verb, signée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#30,358
“saigné” frequency rank
#6,242
“signée” frequency rank
36600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saigné signée
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de saigner. Féminin singulier de signé.

Where the eye mixes saigné and signée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. saigné (CVVCCV) and signée (CVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
saigné
6 ch
signée

Visual trap between saigné and signée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saigné is \se.ɲe\ while signée is \si.ɲe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36600, 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\. signée is at rank #6,242, tagged as anadj, pronounced \si.ɲe\.

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 36600, this pair ranks #268,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of saigné vs signée

Shared letters: ginsé. Private to "saigné": a. Private to "signée": e.

"saigné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "signée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "saigné" and "signée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saigné" is a verb and "signée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "saigné" vs "signée" - which ranks higher?
"signée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,242 in our French list, against #30,358 for "saigné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saigné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "signée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saigné" and "signée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saigné vs Saïgon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #268,453 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