saisivssaisiesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,500
“saisi” frequency rank
#14,559
“saisies” frequency rank
20059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saisi saisies
Definition Pris par une étreinte vigoureuse ou subite. Féminin pluriel de saisi.

Same sound, different letters: saisi vs saisies

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
saisi
7 ch
saisies

Homophone desk: saisi vs saisies

This is the hard kind. saisi and saisies are pronounced identically (\se.zi\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “saisi” sits inside “saisies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saisi is recorded at frequency rank #5,500, classified as anadj, pronounced \se.zi\. saisies is at rank #14,559, tagged as anadj, pronounced \se.zi\.

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 20059, this pair ranks #370,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of saisi vs saisies

Shared letters: ais. Private to "saisi": -. Private to "saisies": e.

"saisi" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "saisies" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saisiasisi · saiis · saissi · sasii · siasi · ssaisi
  • saisiesasisies · saiises · saiseis · saisiess · saisise · saissies · sasiies · siasies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "saisi" for "saisies" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\se.zi\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "saisi" or "saisies" show up more?
"saisi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,500 in our French list, against #14,559 for "saisies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "saisi" / "saisies". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saisi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saisies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saisi" and "saisies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saillies vs saisies". 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 #370,134 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