Which to use
“salir” and “sévir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,007
- “salir” frequency rank
- #30,832
- “sévir” frequency rank
- 46839
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | salir | sévir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rendre sale. | Exercer la répression avec rigueur, contre les personnes, leurs actes. |
Where the eye mixes salir and sévir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. salir and sévir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses salir with sévir
A purely visual mix-up. salir (\sa.liʁ\) and sévir (\se.viʁ\) 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 46839, 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\. sévir is at rank #30,832, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.viʁ\.
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 46839, this pair ranks #191,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of salir vs sévir
Shared letters: irs. Private to "salir": al. Private to "sévir": vé.
"salir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sévir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- salir ← aslir · sailr · salirr · sallir · salri · slair · ssalir
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "salir" and "sévir" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "salir" or "sévir" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "salir" and "sévir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "salir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sévir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "salir" and "sévir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Selim vs sévir". 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 #191,652 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.