Which to use
“sévi” and “sévir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,643
- “sévi” frequency rank
- #30,832
- “sévir” frequency rank
- 73475
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sévi | sévir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de sévir. | Exercer la répression avec rigueur, contre les personnes, leurs actes. |
Where the eye mixes sévi and sévir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sévi runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sévir's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sévi and sévir
A purely visual mix-up. sévi (\se.vi\) and sévir (\se.viʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sévi” sits inside “sévir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sévi is recorded at frequency rank #42,643, classified as averb, pronounced \se.vi\. sévir is at rank #30,832, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.viʁ\.
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 73475, this pair ranks #40,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sévi vs sévir
Shared letters: isvé. Private to "sévi": -. Private to "sévir": r.
"sévi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "sévir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sévi" and "sévir" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sévi" vs "sévir" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sévi" and "sévir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sévi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sévir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sévi" and "sévir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sepp vs sévi". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #40,349 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.