seivsskipWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,154
“sei” frequency rank
#28,749
“skip” frequency rank
64903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sei skip
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sein. Grande benne glissant sur un châssis pour transporter le minerai dans les puits inclinés ou verticaux

Where the eye mixes sei and skip

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sei
4 ch
skip

Why the eye confuses sei with skip

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sei is \zaɪ̯\ while skip is \skip\. 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 64903, 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\. skip is at rank #28,749, tagged as anoun, pronounced \skip\.

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 64903, this pair ranks #74,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sei vs skip

Shared letters: is. Private to "sei": e. Private to "skip": kp.

"sei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "skip" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skipksip · sikp · skipp · skkip · skpi · sskip

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sei" for "skip" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sei" is a verb and "skip" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sei" or "skip" show up more?
"skip" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,749 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skip" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sei" and "skip" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs suu". 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 #74,795 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