Which to use
“selles” is a noun and “sembles” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,466
- “selles” frequency rank
- #17,004
- “sembles” frequency rank
- 38470
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | selles | sembles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Excréments humains, formés des résidus de la digestion. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de sembler. |
Where the eye mixes selles and sembles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. selles runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against sembles's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses selles with sembles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: selles is \sɛl\ while sembles is \sɑ̃bl\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
selles is recorded at frequency rank #21,466, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\. sembles is at rank #17,004, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃bl\.
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 38470, this pair ranks #255,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of selles vs sembles
Shared letters: els. Private to "selles": -. Private to "sembles": bm.
"selles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "sembles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "selles" and "sembles" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "selles" or "sembles" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "selles" and "sembles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "selles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sembles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "selles" and "sembles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "selles vs sépales". 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 #255,047 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.