seraitvsserviConfusable pair

Which to use

“serait” and “servi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#228
“serait” frequency rank
#2,494
“servi” frequency rank
2722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature serait servi
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel présent de être. Participe passé masculin singulier de servir.

Where the eye mixes serait and servi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
serait
5 ch
servi

Look-alike desk: serait vs servi

A purely visual mix-up. serait (\sə.ʁɛ\) and servi (\sɛʁ.vi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

serait is recorded at frequency rank #228, classified as averb, pronounced \sə.ʁɛ\. 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 2722, this pair ranks #435,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of serait vs servi

Shared letters: eirs. Private to "serait": at. Private to "servi": v.

"serait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "servi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seraitesrait · searit · seraitt · serati · seriat · sreait · sserait
  • serviesrvi · seriv · serrvi · servvi · sevri · srevi · sservi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "serait" and "servi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sə.ʁɛ\ versus \sɛʁ.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "serait" vs "servi" - which ranks higher?
"serait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #228 in our French list, against #2,494 for "servi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "serait" 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 #435,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "serait" and "servi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sénart vs serait". 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 #435,596 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