saintevssintTell them apart

Quick tell: sainte is a noun, sint is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sainte” is a noun and “sint” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,422
“sainte” frequency rank
#35,277
“sint” frequency rank
36699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sainte sint
Definition Femme ayant vécu une vie pure, souverainement parfaite et bienheureuse, et généralement reconnue comme telle par une religion. Leur, se (pronom de réciprocité).

Where the eye mixes sainte and sint

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sainte runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against sint's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sainte
4 ch
sint

Look-alike desk: sainte vs sint

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sainte is \sɛ̃t\ while sint is \sint\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sainte is recorded at frequency rank #1,422, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃t\. sint is at rank #35,277, tagged as apron, pronounced \sint\.

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 36699, this pair ranks #267,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sainte vs sint

Shared letters: inst. Private to "sainte": ae. Private to "sint": -.

"sainte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "sint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sainte ← asinte · sainet · sainnte · saintte · saitne · sanite · siante · ssainte
  • sint ← isnt · sinnt · sintt · sitn · snit · ssint

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sainte" for "sint" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sainte" is a noun and "sint" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sainte" vs "sint" - which ranks higher?
"sainte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,422 in our French list, against #35,277 for "sint". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sint" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sainte" and "sint" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sind vs sint". 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 #267,732 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