sincevssincèreWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#30,811
“since” frequency rank
#5,401
“sincère” frequency rank
36212
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature since sincère
Definition Serpillière. Qui est franc, véridique, qui dit ce qu’il pense, ce qu’il sent réellement.

Where the eye mixes since and sincère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. since runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against sincère's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
since
7 ch
sincère

Look-alike desk: since vs sincère

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: since is \sɛ̃s\ while sincère is \sɛ̃.sɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

since is recorded at frequency rank #30,811, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃s\. sincère is at rank #5,401, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛ̃.sɛʁ\.

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 36212, this pair ranks #271,211 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of since vs sincère

Shared letters: ceins. Private to "since": -. Private to "sincère": rè.

"since" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "sincère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • since ← isnce · sicne · sincce · sinec · sinnce · snice · ssince

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "since" for "sincère" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "since" is a noun and "sincère" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "since" or "sincère"?
"sincère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,401 in our French list, against #30,811 for "since". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "since" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sincère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,211 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "since" and "sincère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "since 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 #271,211 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