Which to use
“semble” and “sembles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #429
- “semble” frequency rank
- #17,004
- “sembles” frequency rank
- 17433
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semble | sembles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe sembler. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de sembler. |
Same sound, different letters: semble vs sembles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - semble / sembles
This is the hard kind. semble and sembles are pronounced identically (\sɑ̃bl\) and both work as averb. 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) - “semble” sits inside “sembles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
semble is recorded at frequency rank #429, classified as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃bl\. 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 17433, this pair ranks #383,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of semble vs sembles
Shared letters: belms. Private to "semble": -. Private to "sembles": -.
"semble" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "sembles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "semble" for "sembles" ever safe?
Which is more common, "semble" or "sembles"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "semble" / "sembles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "semble" 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 #383,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semble" and "sembles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sembles 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 #383,190 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.