saisvsSkiTell them apart

Which to use

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

#188
“sais” frequency rank
#3,038
“Ski” frequency rank
3226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sais Ski
Definition En Inde, palefrenier qui accompagne son maître lors de ses sorties à cheval. Ski.

Where the eye mixes sais and Ski

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

4 ch
sais
3 ch
Ski

Why the eye confuses sais with Ski

A purely visual mix-up. sais (\sɛ\) and Ski (\ʃiː\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sais is recorded at frequency rank #188, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ\. Ski is at rank #3,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃiː\.

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 3226, this pair ranks #434,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sais vs Ski

Shared letters: is. Private to "sais": a. Private to "Ski": k.

"sais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Ski" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saisasis · saiss · sasi · sias · ssais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sais" for "Ski" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ\ versus \ʃiː\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "sais" or "Ski" show up more?
"sais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #188 in our French list, against #3,038 for "Ski". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ski" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sais" and "Ski" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ski 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 #434,508 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