skiervsskisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#27,232
“skier” frequency rank
#18,876
“skis” frequency rank
46108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skier skis
Definition Se déplacer sur la neige en utilisant des skis. Pluriel de ski.

Where the eye mixes skier and skis

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

5 ch
skier
4 ch
skis

Look-alike desk: skier vs skis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: skier is \skje\ while skis is \ski\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skier is recorded at frequency rank #27,232, classified as averb, pronounced \skje\. skis is at rank #18,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ski\.

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 46108, this pair ranks #197,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of skier vs skis

Shared letters: iks. Private to "skier": er. Private to "skis": -.

"skier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "skis" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skierksier · siker · skeir · skierr · skire · skkier · sskier
  • skissiks · skiss · skkis · sksi · sskis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "skier" and "skis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "skier" is a verb and "skis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "skier" or "skis"?
"skis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,876 in our French list, against #27,232 for "skier". 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 "skier" and "skis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "skier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #197,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skier" and "skis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skier vs soler". 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 #197,551 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