serbesvsserrezWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,012
“serbes” frequency rank
#41,004
“serrez” frequency rank
57016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature serbes serrez
Definition Pluriel de serbe. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de serrer.

Where the eye mixes serbes and serrez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. serbes and serrez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
serbes
6 ch
serrez

Visual trap between serbes and serrez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: serbes is \sɛʁb\ while serrez is \se.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

serbes is recorded at frequency rank #16,012, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɛʁb\. serrez is at rank #41,004, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.ʁe\.

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 57016, this pair ranks #117,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of serbes vs serrez

Shared letters: ers. Private to "serbes": b. Private to "serrez": z.

"serbes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "serrez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • serbes ← esrbes · sebres · serbbes · serbess · serbse · serebs · serrbes · srebes
  • serrez ← esrrez · sererz · serrezz · serrze · srerez · sserrez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "serbes" for "serrez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "serbes" is an adjective and "serrez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "serbes" vs "serrez" - which ranks higher?
"serbes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,012 in our French list, against #41,004 for "serrez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "serbes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "serrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #117,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "serbes" and "serrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "serrez vs Suárez". 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 #117,541 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