sincevssingleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“since” and “single” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,811
“since” frequency rank
#8,310
“single” frequency rank
39121
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature since single
Definition Serpillière. Cabine ou chambre d’hôtel pour une personne. Dans ce cas, s’utilise au féminin, et s’oppose à double ou twin.

Where the eye mixes since and single

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
since
6 ch
single

Why the eye confuses since with single

A purely visual mix-up. since (\sɛ̃s\) and single (\siŋ.ɡœl\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39121, 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\. single is at rank #8,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siŋ.ɡœl\.

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 39121, this pair ranks #250,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of since vs single

Shared letters: eins. Private to "since": c. Private to "single": gl.

"since" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinceisnce · sicne · sincce · sinec · sinnce · snice · ssince
  • singleisngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle · snigle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "since" and "single" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ̃s\ versus \siŋ.ɡœl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "since" or "single"?
"single" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,310 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "since" and "single" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "since" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "single" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "since" and "single" 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 #250,359 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