servaitvsservisTell them apart

Quick tell: servait is a verb, servis is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,038
“servait” frequency rank
#13,062
“servis” frequency rank
21100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature servait servis
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de servir. Masculin pluriel de servi.

Where the eye mixes servait and servis

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

7 ch
servait
6 ch
servis

Look-alike desk: servait vs servis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: servait is \sɛʁ.vɛ\ while servis is \sɛʁ.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

servait is recorded at frequency rank #8,038, classified as averb, pronounced \sɛʁ.vɛ\. servis is at rank #13,062, tagged as anadj, 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 21100, this pair ranks #364,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of servait vs servis

Shared letters: eirsv. Private to "servait": at. Private to "servis": -.

"servait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "servis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • servaitesrvait · seravit · serrvait · servaitt · servati · serviat · servvait · sevrait
  • servisesrvis · serivs · serrvis · serviss · servsi · servvis · sevris · srevis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "servait" for "servis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "servait" is a verb and "servis" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "servait" or "servis" show up more?
"servait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,038 in our French list, against #13,062 for "servis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "servait" and "servis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "servait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "servis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "servait" and "servis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "servis vs servons". 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 #364,857 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