Which to use
“sent” is a verb and “son” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,575
- “sent” frequency rank
- #42
- “son” frequency rank
- 1617
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sent | son |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de sentir. | Troisième personne du sujet, objet masculin singulier. |
Where the eye mixes sent and son
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sent vs son
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sent is \sɑ̃\ while son is \sɔ̃\. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sent is recorded at frequency rank #1,575, classified as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃\. son is at rank #42, tagged as adet, pronounced \sɔ̃\.
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 1617, this pair ranks #437,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sent vs son
Shared letters: ns. Private to "sent": et. Private to "son": o.
"sent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "son" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sent ← esnt · sennt · sentt · setn · snet · ssent
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sent" and "son" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sent" vs "son" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "son" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sent" and "son" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sent vs sucent". 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 #437,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.