sintvssynConfusable pair

Quick tell: sint is a pronoun, syn is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sint” is a pronoun and “syn” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,277
“sint” frequency rank
#39,569
“syn” frequency rank
74846
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sint syn
Definition Leur, se (pronom de réciprocité). Fils.

Where the eye mixes sint and syn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sint
3 ch
syn

Why the eye confuses sint with syn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sint is \sint\ while syn is \sɨn\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sint is recorded at frequency rank #35,277, classified as apron, pronounced \sint\. syn is at rank #39,569, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɨn\.

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 74846, this pair ranks #35,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sint vs syn

Shared letters: ns. Private to "sint": it. Private to "syn": y.

"sint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "syn" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sintisnt · sinnt · sintt · sitn · snit · ssint

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sint" and "syn" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sint" is a pronoun and "syn" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "sint" or "syn" show up more?
"sint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,277 in our French list, against #39,569 for "syn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "sint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "syn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sint" and "syn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suu vs syn". 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 #35,836 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