saisvsstatsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#188
“sais” frequency rank
#11,864
“stats” frequency rank
12052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes sais and stats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sais
5 ch
stats

Why the eye confuses sais with stats

A purely visual mix-up. sais (\sɛ\) and stats (\stat\) 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 12052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sais is recorded at frequency rank #188, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ\. stats is at rank #11,864, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stat\.

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 12052, this pair ranks #406,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sais vs stats

Shared letters: as. Private to "sais": i. Private to "stats": t.

"sais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "stats" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saisasis · saiss · sasi · sias · ssais
  • statssatts · sstats · stast · statss · statts · sttas · sttats · tsats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sais" and "stats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ\ versus \stat\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sais" or "stats"?
"sais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #188 in our French list, against #11,864 for "stats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "sais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sais" and "stats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs stats". 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 #406,769 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