signervssisterConfusable pair

Quick tell: signer is a verb, sister is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“signer” is a verb and “sister” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,365
“signer” frequency rank
#33,012
“sister” frequency rank
36377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature signer sister
Definition Revêtir de sa signature. Sœur (dans un sens moral, et dans un contexte de personnes anglophones).

Where the eye mixes signer and sister

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. signer and sister follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
signer
6 ch
sister

Look-alike desk: signer vs sister

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: signer is \si.ɲe\ while sister is \sis.tœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

signer is recorded at frequency rank #3,365, classified as averb, pronounced \si.ɲe\. sister is at rank #33,012, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sis.tœʁ\.

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 36377, this pair ranks #270,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of signer vs sister

Shared letters: eirs. Private to "signer": gn. Private to "sister": t.

"signer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signer ← isgner · sginer · sigenr · siggner · signerr · signner · signre · ssigner
  • sister ← isster · sisetr · sisster · sisterr · sistre · sistter · sitser · ssister

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "signer" for "sister" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "signer" is a verb and "sister" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "signer" or "sister"?
"signer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,365 in our French list, against #33,012 for "sister". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "signer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sister" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "signer" and "sister" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sister vs sisters". 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 #270,039 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