sautervsstarterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sauter is a verb, starter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sauter” is a verb and “starter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,800
“sauter” frequency rank
#33,026
“starter” frequency rank
36826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sauter starter
Definition S’élancer en l’air, soit pour retomber au même endroit, soit pour franchir un espace. Juge au départ, personne qui donne le départ d’une épreuve et qui vérifie que nul ne fait de faux départ.

Where the eye mixes sauter and starter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
sauter
7 ch
starter

Why the eye confuses sauter with starter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sauter is \so.te\ while starter is \staʁ.tɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sauter is recorded at frequency rank #3,800, classified as averb, pronounced \so.te\. starter is at rank #33,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced \staʁ.tɛʁ\.

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 36826, this pair ranks #266,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sauter vs starter

Shared letters: aerst. Private to "sauter": u. Private to "starter": -.

"sauter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "starter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sauterasuter · satuer · sauetr · sauterr · sautre · sautter · ssauter · suater
  • startersatrter · sstarter · staretr · starrter · starterr · startre · startter · statrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sauter" and "starter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sauter" is a verb and "starter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sauter" or "starter" show up more?
"sauter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,800 in our French list, against #33,026 for "starter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sauter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "starter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sauter" and "starter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stalker vs starter". 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 #266,877 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