sei vs sévir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,154
“sei” frequency rank: #30,832
“sévir” frequency rank: 66986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	sei	sévir
Definition	Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sein.	Exercer la répression avec rigueur, contre les personnes, leurs actes.

Where the eye mixes sei and sévir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. sei runs 3 letters (CVV) against sévir's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch

sei

5 ch

sévir

Visual trap between sei and sévir

A purely visual mix-up. sei (\zaɪ̯\) and sévir (\se.viʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sei is recorded at frequency rank #36,154, classified as averb, pronounced \zaɪ̯\. sévir is at rank #30,832, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.viʁ\.

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 66986, this pair ranks #65,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sei vs sévir

Shared letters: is. Private to "sei": e. Private to "sévir": rvé.

"sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "sévir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sei" and "sévir" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\zaɪ̯\ versus \se.viʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "sei" vs "sévir" - which ranks higher?

"sévir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,832 in our French list, against #36,154 for "sei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "sei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sévir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #65,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"sei" and "sévir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs suu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,420 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.