Which to use
“sauvage” and “sauvages” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,361
- “sauvage” frequency rank
- #4,989
- “sauvages” frequency rank
- 8350
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sauvage | sauvages |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se dit de certains animaux qui vivent en liberté dans les bois, dans le désert, etc. | Pluriel de sauvage. |
Same sound, different letters: sauvage vs sauvages
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. sauvage runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against sauvages's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - sauvage / sauvages
This is the hard kind. sauvage and sauvages are pronounced identically (\so.vaʒ\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sauvage” sits inside “sauvages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sauvage is recorded at frequency rank #3,361, classified as anadj, pronounced \so.vaʒ\. sauvages is at rank #4,989, tagged as anadj, pronounced \so.vaʒ\.
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 8350, this pair ranks #420,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sauvage vs sauvages
Shared letters: aegsuv. Private to "sauvage": -. Private to "sauvages": -.
"sauvage" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "sauvages" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sauvage" and "sauvages" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "sauvage" vs "sauvages" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "sauvage" / "sauvages". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "sauvage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sauvages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sauvage" and "sauvages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sauvages vs sauvetages". 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 #420,320 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.