servantsvssortantsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,185
“servants” frequency rank
#25,134
“sortants” frequency rank
69319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature servants sortants
Definition Masculin pluriel de servant. Masculin pluriel de sortant.

Where the eye mixes servants and sortants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
servants
8 ch
sortants

Look-alike desk: servants vs sortants

A purely visual mix-up. servants (\sɛʁ.vɑ̃\) and sortants (\sɔʁ.tɑ̃\) 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 69319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

servants is recorded at frequency rank #44,185, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɛʁ.vɑ̃\. sortants is at rank #25,134, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɑ̃\.

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 69319, this pair ranks #55,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of servants vs sortants

Shared letters: anrst. Private to "servants": ev. Private to "sortants": o.

"servants" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC  ·  "sortants" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • servantsesrvants · seravnts · serrvants · servannts · servanst · servantss · servantts · servatns
  • sortantsosrtants · soratnts · sorrtants · sortannts · sortanst · sortantss · sortantts · sortatns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "servants" for "sortants" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛʁ.vɑ̃\ versus \sɔʁ.tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "servants" vs "sortants" - which ranks higher?
"sortants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,134 in our French list, against #44,185 for "servants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "servants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sortants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "servants" and "sortants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sergents vs servants". 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 #55,599 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