sousvsspotsTell them apart

Which to use

“sous” and “spots” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,705
“sous” frequency rank
#30,263
“spots” frequency rank
78968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sous spots
Definition Forma del plural de sou. Forma del plural de spot.

Where the eye mixes sous and spots

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

4 ch
sous
5 ch
spots

Look-alike desk: sous vs spots

A purely visual mix-up. sous ([ˈsows]) and spots (/spɒts/) 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 78968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sous is recorded at frequency rank #48,705, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsows]. spots is at rank #30,263, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spɒts/.

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 78968, this pair ranks #13,676 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sous vs spots

Shared letters: os. Private to "sous": u. Private to "spots": pt.

"sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "spots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sousosus · sosu · souss · ssous
  • spotspsots · sopts · spost · spotss · spotts · sppots · sptos · sspots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sous" for "spots" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsows] versus /spɒts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sous" or "spots"?
"spots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,263 in our Spanish list, against #48,705 for "sous". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,676 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sous" and "spots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sous vs Susa". 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 #13,676 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list