salirvssaluéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,007
“salir” frequency rank
#15,031
“salué” frequency rank
31038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salir salué
Definition Rendre sale. Participe passé masculin singulier de saluer.

Where the eye mixes salir and salué

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

5 ch
salir
5 ch
salué

Look-alike desk: salir vs salué

A purely visual mix-up. salir (\sa.liʁ\) and salué (\sa.lɥe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salir is recorded at frequency rank #16,007, classified as averb, pronounced \sa.liʁ\. salué is at rank #15,031, tagged as averb, pronounced \sa.lɥe\.

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 31038, this pair ranks #306,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salir vs salué

Shared letters: als. Private to "salir": ir. Private to "salué": .

"salir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "salué" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saliraslir · sailr · salirr · sallir · salri · slair · ssalir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "salir" for "salué" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sa.liʁ\ versus \sa.lɥe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "salir" or "salué"?
"salué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,031 in our French list, against #16,007 for "salir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salir" and "salué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "salir vs soli". 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 #306,394 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