servagevsserviceTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,872
“servage” frequency rank
#322
“service” frequency rank
46194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature servage service
Definition Condition du serf. Action de servir une personne ou une collectivité.

Where the eye mixes servage and service

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
servage
7 ch
service

Visual trap between servage and service

A purely visual mix-up. servage (\sɛʁ.vaʒ\) and service (\sɛʁ.vis\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

servage is recorded at frequency rank #45,872, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.vaʒ\. service is at rank #322, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.vis\.

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 46194, this pair ranks #196,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of servage vs service

Shared letters: ersv. Private to "servage": ag. Private to "service": ci.

"servage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "service" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • servageesrvage · seravge · serrvage · servaeg · servagge · servgae · servvage · srevage
  • serviceesrvice · serivce · serrvice · servcie · servicce · serviec · servvice · sevrice

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "servage" and "service" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɛʁ.vaʒ\ versus \sɛʁ.vis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "servage" vs "service" - which ranks higher?
"service" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #322 in our French list, against #45,872 for "servage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "servage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "service" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "servage" and "service" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "servage vs servile". 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 #196,866 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