savaisvssavanesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,836
“savais” frequency rank
#47,035
“savanes” frequency rank
48871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature savais savanes
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de savoir. Pluriel de savane.

Where the eye mixes savais and savanes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. savais runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against savanes's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
savais
7 ch
savanes

Look-alike desk: savais vs savanes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: savais is \sa.vɛ\ while savanes is \sa.van\. 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 48871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

savais is recorded at frequency rank #1,836, classified as averb, pronounced \sa.vɛ\. savanes is at rank #47,035, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sa.van\.

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 48871, this pair ranks #175,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of savais vs savanes

Shared letters: asv. Private to "savais": i. Private to "savanes": en.

"savais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "savanes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • savaisasvais · saavis · savaiss · savasi · savias · savvais · ssavais · svaais
  • savanesasvanes · saavnes · savaens · savaness · savannes · savanse · savnaes · savvanes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "savais" for "savanes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "savais" is a verb and "savanes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "savais" or "savanes" show up more?
"savais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,836 in our French list, against #47,035 for "savanes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "savais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "savanes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "savais" and "savanes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "salines vs savanes". 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 #175,374 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