Which to use
“serve” is a noun and “suive” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,566
- “serve” frequency rank
- #18,330
- “suive” frequency rank
- 32896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | serve | suive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme attachée au domaine qu’elle cultive moyennant redevance au seigneur qui en est le propriétaire. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif du verbe suivre. |
Where the eye mixes serve and suive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between serve and suive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: serve is \sɛʁv\ while suive is \sɥiv\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
serve is recorded at frequency rank #14,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁv\. suive is at rank #18,330, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥiv\.
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 32896, this pair ranks #294,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of serve vs suive
Shared letters: esv. Private to "serve": r. Private to "suive": iu.
"serve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "suive" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "serve" and "suive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "serve" or "suive"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "serve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "serve" and "suive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suive vs Suze". 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 #294,237 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.