sapervssavezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,798
“saper” frequency rank
#1,679
“savez” frequency rank
32477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saper savez
Definition Travailler avec le pic et la pioche à détruire les fondations d’un édifice, d’un bastion, etc. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de savoir.

Where the eye mixes saper and savez

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

5 ch
saper
5 ch
savez

Look-alike desk: saper vs savez

A purely visual mix-up. saper (\sa.pe\) and savez (\sa.ve\) 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 32477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saper is recorded at frequency rank #30,798, classified as averb, pronounced \sa.pe\. savez is at rank #1,679, tagged as averb, pronounced \sa.ve\.

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 32477, this pair ranks #297,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of saper vs savez

Shared letters: aes. Private to "saper": pr. Private to "savez": vz.

"saper" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "savez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saperasper · saepr · saperr · sapper · sapre · spaer · ssaper
  • savezasvez · saevz · savezz · savvez · savze · ssavez · svaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "saper" and "savez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sa.pe\ versus \sa.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "saper" vs "savez" - which ranks higher?
"savez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,679 in our French list, against #30,798 for "saper". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "saper" and "savez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "savez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saper" and "savez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saper vs soler". 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 #297,015 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