souvenir

\su.və.niʁ\

/\su.və.niʁ\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“souvenir” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,721. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,721
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Avoir mémoire de quelque chose ; rappeler.

Corpus desk

Index FR-souvenir · souvenir · French

souvenir · rank #1,721 · 11 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,721
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH suit

Nearest frequency peer: suit (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « souvenir »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « souvenir » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

souvenir vs souvent
75% similar
souvenir vs souvenu
75% similar
souvenir vs subvenir
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for souvenir
PropertyValue
Headwordsouvenir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\su.və.niʁ\
Letters8
Frequency rank#1,721
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « souvenir »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).souvenirse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « suit » (#1,722), « tenter » (#1,723), « test » (#1,724). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « souvenir » est au #1,721. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around souvenir (IPA \su.və.niʁ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,721 among 6,032 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for souvenir, with forms such as "osuvenir", "souevnir", and "souveinr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "souvent", "souvenu", "subvenir", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is souvenir, spelled S-O-U-V-E-N-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Avoir mémoire de quelque chose ; rappeler.
  2. 2
    Se remémorer, se revenir, se mémoriser.
  3. 3
    (Utilisé uniquement dans se souvenir) Garder la mémoire, soit d’un bienfait pour le reconnaître, soit d’une injure pour s’en venger.
  4. 4
    (Utilisé uniquement dans se souvenir) Avoir du ressentiment.
  5. 5
    (Utilisé uniquement dans se souvenir) Avoir soin, s’occuper de quelque chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how souvenir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ils me font toujours souvenir du ciel gris de chaleur, de la poussière qui portait l’empreinte de pieds nus et des touffes immobiles des hauts papayers lisses qui émergeaient d'une étonnante végétation.
  2. — Oh toi, ronchonne-t-elle, tu joues l’esprit fort, n’empêche que tu dormais mal, souviens-toi. Et que t'as été bien content de rhabiter Paris.

This word in other languages

remember(English)recordar(Español)cuidar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • osuvenir
  • souevnir
  • souveinr
  • souvenirr
  • souvennir
  • souvenri
  • souvneir
  • souvvenir
  • sovuenir
  • ssouvenir
  • suovenir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of souvenir - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

osuvenir2souevnir2souveinr2souvenirr1souvennir1souvenri2souvneir2souvvenir1
Edit distance from "souvenir"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "souvenir"?
"souvenir" is spelled S-O-U-V-E-N-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \su.və.niʁ\.
What does "souvenir" mean?
As a verb, "souvenir" means: Avoir mémoire de quelque chose ; rappeler.
What words are commonly confused with "souvenir"?
"souvenir" is commonly confused with "souvent", "souvenu", "subvenir". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "souvenir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "souvenir" is \su.və.niʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "souvenir" come from?
"souvenir" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "souvenir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

préparer#1,715bordeaux#1,728bâtiment#1,729pourrais#1,713

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

concept11 variantsdéputés11 variantsdomicile11 variantsmontant11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list