saitvssitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#393
“sait” frequency rank
#19,990
“sit” frequency rank
20383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sait sit
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de savoir. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de seoir.

Where the eye mixes sait and sit

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

4 ch
sait
3 ch
sit

Why the eye confuses sait with sit

A purely visual mix-up. sait (\sɛ\) and sit (\si\) 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 20383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sait is recorded at frequency rank #393, classified as averb, pronounced \sɛ\. sit is at rank #19,990, tagged as averb, pronounced \si\.

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 20383, this pair ranks #368,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sait vs sit

Shared letters: ist. Private to "sait": a. Private to "sit": -.

"sait" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "sit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saitasit · saitt · sati · siat · ssait

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sait" and "sit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ\ versus \si\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "sait" or "sit" show up more?
"sait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #393 in our French list, against #19,990 for "sit". 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 "sait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sait" and "sit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sit 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 #368,552 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