Which to use
“shades” and “sondés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,617
- “shades” frequency rank
- #28,354
- “sondés” frequency rank
- 70971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shades | sondés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de shade. | Pluriel de sondé. |
Letter map: shades vs sondés
Shared letters muted; letters that set shades and sondés apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shades (CCVCVC) and sondés (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Corpus notes: shades and sondés
shades and sondés are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shades is recorded at frequency rank #42,617, classified as anoun. sondés is at rank #28,354, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ̃.de\.
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 70971, this pair ranks #49,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shades vs sondés
Shared letters: ds. Private to "shades": aeh. Private to "sondés": noé.
"shades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "sondés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shades ← hsades · sahdes · shaddes · shadess · shadse · shaeds · shdaes · shhades
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shades" for "sondés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shades" vs "sondés" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "shades" vs "sondés" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "shades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sondés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shades" and "sondés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sardes vs shades". 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 #49,302 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.