singevssungConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#7,628
“singe” frequency rank
#26,197
“sung” frequency rank
33825
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singe sung
Definition Mammifère de l’ordre des Primates, hors l’Homme, hors le lémurien. Participe passé de sing.

Where the eye mixes singe and sung

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

5 ch
singe
4 ch
sung

Look-alike desk: singe vs sung

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: singe is \sɛ̃ʒ\ while sung is \ˈsʌŋ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33825, 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\. sung is at rank #26,197, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈsʌŋ\.

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 33825, this pair ranks #288,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of singe vs sung

Shared letters: gns. Private to "singe": ei. Private to "sung": u.

"singe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "sung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singeisnge · sineg · singge · sinnge · snige · ssinge
  • sungsnug · ssung · sugn · sungg · sunng · usng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "singe" and "sung" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "singe" is a noun and "sung" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "singe" or "sung"?
"singe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,628 in our French list, against #26,197 for "sung". 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 "singe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singe" and "sung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sung vs suu". 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 #288,032 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