singvssinonWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: sing is a verb, sinon is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sing” is a verb and “sinon” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,371
“sing” frequency rank
#640
“sinon” frequency rank
24011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sing sinon
Definition Chanter (avec sa voix). Si ce n’est : si ce qui est énoncé est faux, alors.

Where the eye mixes sing and sinon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sing
5 ch
sinon

Look-alike desk: sing vs sinon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sing is \ˈsɪŋ\ while sinon is \si.nɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sing is recorded at frequency rank #23,371, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈsɪŋ\. sinon is at rank #640, tagged as aconj, pronounced \si.nɔ̃\.

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 24011, this pair ranks #349,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sing vs sinon

Shared letters: ins. Private to "sing": g. Private to "sinon": o.

"sing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "sinon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singisng · singg · sinng · snig · ssing
  • sinonisnon · sinno · sinnon · sinonn · sionn · snion · ssinon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sing" for "sinon" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sing" is a verb and "sinon" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sing" or "sinon"?
"sinon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #640 in our French list, against #23,371 for "sing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sinon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #349,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sing" and "sinon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sind vs sing". 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 #349,173 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