Which to use
“sepa” and “sévi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,311
- “sepa” frequency rank
- #42,643
- “sévi” frequency rank
- 87954
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sepa | sévi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du subjonctif présent de saber. | Participe passé masculin singulier de sévir. |
Where the eye mixes sepa and sévi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. sepa and sévi follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses sepa with sévi
A purely visual mix-up. sepa (\ˈse.pa\) and sévi (\se.vi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sepa is recorded at frequency rank #45,311, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈse.pa\. sévi is at rank #42,643, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.vi\.
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 87954, this pair ranks #7,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sepa vs sévi
Shared letters: s. Private to "sepa": aep. Private to "sévi": ivé.
"sepa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "sévi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sepa ← espa · seap · seppa · spea · ssepa
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sepa" and "sévi" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sepa" or "sévi"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sepa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sévi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sepa" and "sévi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sepa vs Sepp". 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 #7,612 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.