Which to use
“semés” is an adjective and “semis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,869
- “semés” frequency rank
- #20,280
- “semis” frequency rank
- 66149
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semés | semis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de semé. | Mise en terre des semences ; action de semer. |
Where the eye mixes semés and semis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. semés and semis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses semés with semis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semés is \sə.me\ while semis is \sə.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - é in “semés” becomes i in “semis”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
semés is recorded at frequency rank #45,869, classified as anadj, pronounced \sə.me\. semis is at rank #20,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.mi\.
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 66149, this pair ranks #69,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of semés vs semis
Shared letters: ems. Private to "semés": é. Private to "semis": i.
"semés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "semis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- semis ← esmis · seims · semiss · semmis · semsi · smeis · ssemis
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "semés" and "semis" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "semés" or "semis" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "semés" and "semis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "semés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "semis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semés" and "semis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semés vs sémites". 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 #69,066 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.