semésvssersWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: semés is a adjective, sers is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“semés” is an adjective and “sers” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,869
“semés” frequency rank
#9,390
“sers” frequency rank
55259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature semés sers
Definition Masculin pluriel de semé. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de servir.

Where the eye mixes semés and sers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
semés
4 ch
sers

Why the eye confuses semés with sers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: semés is \sə.me\ while sers is \sɛʁ\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55259, 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\. sers is at rank #9,390, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛʁ\.

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 55259, this pair ranks #128,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of semés vs sers

Shared letters: es. Private to "semés": . Private to "sers": r.

"semés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sersesrs · serrs · serss · sesr · sres · ssers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "semés" and "sers" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "semés" is an adjective and "sers" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "semés" or "sers" show up more?
"sers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,390 in our French list, against #45,869 for "semés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "semés" and "sers" 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 "sers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #128,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "semés" and "sers" 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 #128,611 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