singesvssiresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,074
“singes” frequency rank
#48,797
“sires” frequency rank
58871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singes sires
Definition Pluriel de singe. Pluriel de sire.

Where the eye mixes singes and sires

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

6 ch
singes
5 ch
sires

Look-alike desk: singes vs sires

A purely visual mix-up. singes (\sɛ̃ʒ\) and sires (\siʁ\) 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 58871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

singes is recorded at frequency rank #10,074, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃ʒ\. sires is at rank #48,797, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siʁ\.

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 58871, this pair ranks #106,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of singes vs sires

Shared letters: eis. Private to "singes": gn. Private to "sires": r.

"singes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singesisnges · signes · sinegs · singess · singges · singse · sinnges · sniges
  • siresisres · siers · siress · sirres · sirse · sries · ssires

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "singes" and "sires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ̃ʒ\ versus \siʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "singes" or "sires"?
"singes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,074 in our French list, against #48,797 for "sires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "singes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singes" and "sires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sires vs sofres". 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 #106,413 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