Which to use
“surveiller” and “surveillez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,809
- “surveiller” frequency rank
- #33,479
- “surveillez” frequency rank
- 38288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | surveiller | surveillez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Observer avec attention ; examiner ; contrôler. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de surveiller. |
Where the eye mixes surveiller and surveillez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. surveiller and surveillez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between surveiller and surveillez
A purely visual mix-up. surveiller (\syʁ.vɛ.je\) and surveillez (\syʁ.ve.je\) 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 a single letter - r in “surveiller” becomes z in “surveillez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
surveiller is recorded at frequency rank #4,809, classified as averb, pronounced \syʁ.vɛ.je\. surveillez is at rank #33,479, tagged as averb, pronounced \syʁ.ve.je\.
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 38288, this pair ranks #256,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of surveiller vs surveillez
Shared letters: eilrsuv. Private to "surveiller": -. Private to "surveillez": z.
"surveiller" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC · "surveillez" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- surveiller ← sruveiller · ssurveiller · sureviller · surrveiller · surveilelr · surveiler · surveillerr · surveillre
- surveillez ← sruveillez · ssurveillez · surevillez · surrveillez · surveilelz · surveilez · surveillezz · surveillze
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "surveiller" and "surveillez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "surveiller" or "surveillez" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "surveiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surveillez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #256,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "surveiller" and "surveillez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surveillées vs surveillez". 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 #256,322 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.