singvsspringTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,371
“sing” frequency rank
#19,689
“spring” frequency rank
43060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sing spring
Definition Chanter (avec sa voix). Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de springen.

Where the eye mixes sing and spring

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

4 ch
sing
6 ch
spring

Look-alike desk: sing vs spring

A purely visual mix-up. sing (\ˈsɪŋ\) and spring (\ʃpʁɪŋ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43060, 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\. spring is at rank #19,689, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃpʁɪŋ\.

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 43060, this pair ranks #220,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sing vs spring

Shared letters: gins. Private to "sing": -. Private to "spring": pr.

"sing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "spring" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singisng · singg · sinng · snig · ssing
  • springpsring · spirng · sppring · sprign · springg · sprinng · sprnig · sprring

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sing" for "spring" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈsɪŋ\ versus \ʃpʁɪŋ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sing" or "spring"?
"spring" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,689 in our French list, against #23,371 for "sing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "spring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sing" and "spring" 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 #220,919 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