saignévssignerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,358
“saigné” frequency rank
#3,365
“signer” frequency rank
33723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saigné signer
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de saigner. Revêtir de sa signature.

Where the eye mixes saigné and signer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. saigné (CVVCCV) and signer (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
saigné
6 ch
signer

Visual trap between saigné and signer

A purely visual mix-up. saigné (\se.ɲe\) and signer (\si.ɲe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33723, 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\. signer is at rank #3,365, tagged as averb, 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 33723, this pair ranks #288,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of saigné vs signer

Shared letters: gins. Private to "saigné": aé. Private to "signer": er.

"saigné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "signer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signer ← isgner · sginer · sigenr · siggner · signerr · signner · signre · ssigner

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saigné" for "signer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.ɲe\ versus \si.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "saigné" vs "signer" - which ranks higher?
"signer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,365 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "saigné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "signer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saigné" and "signer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saigné vs Saïgon". 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 #288,724 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