Which to use
“sarde” is an adjective and “soude” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,035
- “sarde” frequency rank
- #21,472
- “soude” frequency rank
- 63507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sarde | soude |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif à la Sardaigne, ses habitants, sa culture. | Hydroxyde de sodium, de formule NaOH. C'est un produit extrêmement dangereux car caustique pour les tissus vivants (→ voir soude caustique). |
Where the eye mixes sarde and soude
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sarde (CVCCV) and soude (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: sarde vs soude
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sarde is \saʁd\ while soude is \sud\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sarde is recorded at frequency rank #42,035, classified as anadj, pronounced \saʁd\. soude is at rank #21,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sud\.
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 63507, this pair ranks #81,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sarde vs soude
Shared letters: des. Private to "sarde": ar. Private to "soude": ou.
"sarde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "soude" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sarde" for "soude" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "sarde" or "soude" show up more?
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 "sarde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sarde" and "soude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sarde vs Sardes". 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 #81,615 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.