samvsspamsConfusable pair

Quick tell: sam is a adverb, spams is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sam” is an adverb and “spams” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,285
“sam” frequency rank
#36,599
“spams” frequency rank
40884
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sam spams
Definition Du tout (combiné avec la négation). Pluriel de spam.

Letter map: sam vs spams

Shared letters muted; letters that set sam and spams apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
sam
5 ch
spams

Role in the sentence - sam and spams

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sam is anadverb and spamsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sam is recorded at frequency rank #4,285, classified as anadv. spams is at rank #36,599, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spam\.

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 40884, this pair ranks #237,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sam vs spams

Shared letters: ams. Private to "sam": -. Private to "spams": p.

"sam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "spams" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spamspsams · sapms · spamms · spamss · spasm · spmas · sppams · sspams

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sam" and "spams" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sam" is an adverb and "spams" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sam" or "spams" show up more?
"sam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,285 in our French list, against #36,599 for "spams". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "sam" vs "spams" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spams" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sam" and "spams" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seals vs spams". 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 #237,188 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