servsserviWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ser is a pronoun, servi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ser” is a pronoun and “servi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,252
“ser” frequency rank
#2,494
“servi” frequency rank
17746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ser servi
Definition Que. Participe passé masculin singulier de servir.

Letter map: ser vs servi

Shared letters muted; letters that set ser and servi apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
ser
5 ch
servi

Role in the sentence - ser and servi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ser is apronoun and serviaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ser” sits inside “servi”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ser is recorded at frequency rank #15,252, classified as apron. servi is at rank #2,494, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛʁ.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 17746, this pair ranks #381,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ser vs servi

Shared letters: ers. Private to "ser": -. Private to "servi": iv.

"ser" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "servi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • serviesrvi · seriv · serrvi · servvi · sevri · srevi · sservi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ser" and "servi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ser" is a pronoun and "servi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ser" or "servi"?
"servi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,494 in our French list, against #15,252 for "ser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ser" and "servi". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "servi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #381,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ser" and "servi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ser vs suu". 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 #381,674 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