singevssingerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,628
“singe” frequency rank
#22,098
“singer” frequency rank
29726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singe singer
Definition Mammifère de l’ordre des Primates, hors l’Homme, hors le lémurien. Imiter une personne en la tournant en dérision.

Where the eye mixes singe and singer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
singe
6 ch
singer

Why the eye confuses singe with singer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: singe is \sɛ̃ʒ\ while singer is \sɛ̃.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “singe” sits inside “singer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

singe is recorded at frequency rank #7,628, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃ʒ\. singer is at rank #22,098, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛ̃.ʒe\.

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 29726, this pair ranks #314,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of singe vs singer

Shared letters: egins. Private to "singe": -. Private to "singer": r.

"singe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "singer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singeisnge · sineg · singge · sinnge · snige · ssinge
  • singerisnger · sinegr · singerr · singger · singre · sinnger · sniger · ssinger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "singe" and "singer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "singe" is a noun and "singer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "singe" or "singer" show up more?
"singe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,628 in our French list, against #22,098 for "singer". 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 "singe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "singer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singe" and "singer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "singer vs songeur". 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 #314,903 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