signevssoignéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: signe is a noun, soigné is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“signe” is a noun and “soigné” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,097
“signe” frequency rank
#10,948
“soigné” frequency rank
12045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature signe soigné
Definition Indice ou marque d’une chose. Qui est fait avec soin, où l’on voit du soin.

Letter map: signe vs soigné

Shared letters muted; letters that set signe and soigné apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. signe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against soigné's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
signe
6 ch
soigné

Grammar separator: signe vs soigné

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: signe is anoun and soignéanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

signe is recorded at frequency rank #1,097, classified as anoun, pronounced \siɲ\. soigné is at rank #10,948, tagged as anadj.

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 12045, this pair ranks #406,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of signe vs soigné

Shared letters: gins. Private to "signe": e. Private to "soigné": oé.

"signe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "soigné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signe ← isgne · sgine · sigen · siggne · signne · ssigne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "signe" for "soigné" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "signe" is a noun and "soigné" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "signe" vs "soigné" - which ranks higher?
"signe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,097 in our French list, against #10,948 for "soigné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "signe" and "soigné". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "signe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soigné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "signe" and "soigné" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "signe vs sind". 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 #406,804 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